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THE 

STORY OF CORN 

AND THE 

WESTWARD MIGRATION 



By 
EUGENE CLYDE BROOKS . 

Professor of Education, Trinity College, Durham, N. C. 
Author of " The Story of Cotton " 



RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 

Chicago New York London 



Copyright, iqi6 
By Eugene C. Brooks 







NOV l-7i9l6 




)CI,A445692 



THE TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Preface iii 

A List of the Maps ix 

CHAPTER I 

The Struggle for Food. i 

The Feeding Instinct — Relation of Food to the Body — 
The Story of Prometheus and Epimetheus — Wisdom and 
Foresight Developed Slowly — How Man Made the Animals 
Help Him — The Corn of the World — The Value of Corn. 

CHAPTER II 

Mythical Stories of Our Food-Giving Plants i6 

The Mystery of Life— The Egyptian Myth: Isis and 
Osiris — The Greek and Roman Myth: Ceres and Proserpine 
— The Indian Myth: Mondamin and Hiawatha — Ancient 
Use of Other Vegetables. 

CHAPTER III 

Food a Factor in Civilization 26 

Civilization Improves as Food Improves — Ancient Knowl- 
edge of Cooking — Importance of Good Food — The Bread 
of the World — Rise of the Baker — How Nations Have Fought 
for Corn — Commerce a Necessity — A New Food. 

CHAPTER IV 

How the Discovery of a New Continent Affected the World's 

Food Supply 44 

Evils Due to Insufficient Food — The Cause of Famines — 
The Famines of the World before America was Settled — The 
Famines of the World since America was Settled — Relation 
of Commerce to the Food Supply — Why Universal Famines 
Have Not Occurred since 1600 — The New Continent. 

CHAPTER V 

A. New Continent and a New Food 57 

Interest in the New World — The Wealth of the New 
World — How America was Divided among the Europeans — • 
The First English Settlement — Early Difficulties — How a 
New Food was Given to the World — How the Pilgrim 
Colony was Saved — How the First Settlers Depended upon 
Corn — Two Stories — Importance of Corn in the History 
of America — Our Gold. 

iii X 



IV The Table of Contents 

CHAPTER VI PAGE 

The Lure of the Land 74 

Land Ownership — The Free Lands of America — How 
America was Settled — Religious and Political Persecution 
— The Thirteen Colonies Prospered on Corn — How the 
Piedmont Country Depended on Corn — The Growth of the 
Colonies Depended on Corn — The Call of the Frontiers— The 
Land beyond the Mountains. 



CHAPTER VII < 

Opening the Great Corn Country 93 

Why the English Settlers were Slow to Cross the Moun- 
tains — Ancient Highways — The Disputed Territory— The 
English Take Possession of the Land beyond the Mountains 
— Daniel Boone Leads the Way — Fertility of the Western 
Country — Troubles with England — George Rogers Clark 
— How the Corn Country was Taken — The Geography of 
the Corn Country. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Settling the Corn Country iii 

Beyond the Appalachians — Political Difficulties: States' 
Rights; Forming the Northwest Territory; Government of 
the Northwest — The Difficulties in the West — The First 
Settlement in the Corn Country — The Great Migration 
Westward — Hardships Endured — Emigration from Europe 
— Effect of Migration on the States East of the Mountains 
— The Distribution of Population. 



CHAPTER IX 

Early Life in the Corn Country 132 

Primitive Methods of Tilling the Soil — When Corn was 
. King — Beginning of Western Civilization — Early Com- 
merce — The Pack Horses — Effect of this Isolation on the 
West — The Source of Wealth — Value of this Trade — 
Floating Stores — The National Turnpike. 



CHAPTER X 

Connecting the Com Country with the World 149 

The Need of Internal Improvements — Political Difficulties 
' — Robert Fulton — The Clermont — Steamboats on the Ohio — 
Why the Steamboat was Delayed — Effect of the Steamboat — • 
The Mississippi Valley — The Mississippi River — How the 
Great Valley was Unified.' 



The Table of Contents v 

CHAPTER XI PAGE 

An Era of Internal Improvements 167 

Dependence of the West upon the South — The Era of 
Canal Building — Opening of the Erie Canal — The Ohio 
Canal — Effect of these Canals on the West — Effect of 
these Canals on the East — Effect of these Canals on the 
Mississippi Trade — Continued Growth of the Corn Country 
— The Grain of the West — How the World was Needing 
the Grain of the West. 

CHAPTER XII 

Railroads: Completing the Connection of the Com Country 

with the Markets of the East 183 

The Problem — The Coming of the Railroad — The 

Inventor of the Locomotive — The "Rocket" — The Value of' 

Stephenson's Invention — The Coming of the Locomotive to 

America — The Railroad Starts toward the Corn Country — 

■ The Effect of the Railway. 

CHAPTER XIII 

The Granary of the World 197 

A New Era— The Movement Westward — The Limits of 
the Corn Country — Prosperity of the Corn Country — How 
Grain Made Chicago — Relation of Corn to the Live-Stock 
Industry — The Product of the Packing Houses — The Grain 
Trade of Chicago — The Center of the World's Food Supply. 



CHAPTER XIV 

How the West Became the Granary of the World 217 

Before the Days of Improved Machinery — McCormick 
and the Reaper ^ — The Effect of the Reaper — The Threshing 
Machine — The Necessity for Machines to Harvest Corn — 
Methods of Harvesting Corn — The First Machines for 
Harvesting Corn — Corn Binders — Corn Shockers — Corn 
Pickers — The Plow — The Grain Elevator — How the West 
Became the Granary of the World. 

CHAPTER XV 

The Last American Frontiers 236 

The Last of the Prairie Lands — Movement of Population 
— How the Far West is Dependent upon the Corn Country — 
Improvements in Agriculture — Population Increasing Faster 
than Corn Production — The Value of Corn in the World's 
Commerce — Other Food Centers Develop — The Nation's 
Problem — The Nation Turned to the South. 



vi The Table oj Contents 

CHAPTER XVI 

PAGE 

Farmers' Demonstration Work and the Corn-Club Movement. .252 

The Problem — Seaman A. Knapp — Farmers' Cooperative 
Demonstration Work — Boys' Corn Clubs — The Remarkable 
Results — How the Corn Clubs were Organized — Result of 
the Farm Demonstration Work — Business Management. 

CHAPTER XVII 

Varieties of Corn 270 

Favorable Conditions for Corn Production — Extent of Its 
Cultivation — Varieties of Corn — The Origin of Corn — How 
Varieties are Formed — Improving the Variety by Seed Selec- 
tion — How Good Soil Improves the Variety — The Use of 
Fertilizer. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Corn : The National Grain , 289 

The Value of Corn — The Most Common Corn Products — 
The Corn Kitchen at the Paris Exposition — Corn as a Food 
for Man — A Comparison. 

A Bibliography 301 

The Index 304 



THE PREFACE 

The struggle of the human race for food has been and 
still is one of the great factors in the growth of civilization. 
Histories tell us of the progress of social institutions. 
Geographies analyze the world's food supply and describe 
in detail the areas that are most productive. Books on 
agriculture give us a study of the food plants and the 
best methods of securing the greatest returns from the 
land. But none of these texts makes it sufficiently clear 
to the youth of the country that the improvement in 
food plants and the productivity of the land are among 
the greatest factors in the building of a civilization. 

The purpose of The Story of Corn is to combine certain 
fundamental principles of geography and agriculture 
and treat them historically in order that the youth may 
appreciate the tremendous importance of agriculture in 
the history of the race. A complete history of agriculture 
would make a volume too large and to(5 technical for 
grammar-grade or high-school pupils. Therefore the 
cereals, with special emphasis on Indian com, have been 
chosen as the theme for this book. 

The Story oj Corn is a story of the struggle of the 
htiman race for food. Primitive people deified the 
natural forces that produced the food. When man 
relied on only one cereal, famines were frequent. But 
the discovery of America gave to the world a new cereal, 
maize or Indian corn, and since that time famines among 
civilized people have grown less and less frequent, until 
to-day they are practically unknown in civilized coimtries. 
This new cereal, Indian com, sustained the first settlers 

vii 



viii The Preface 

in their attempts to build homes in the New World, and 
as the settlers moved westward, it was Indian corn that 
drew them to the new lands and supported them while 
they opened the great states beyond the mountains. 
The upper Mississippi Valley, then, became the world's 
granary, and Chicago the greatest food market in the 
world. 

The grain of the West stimulated the demand for 
better communication, and internal improvements became 
a great national issue. Highways, canals, steamboats, and 
railroads were built to connect the East and the West in 
order that the grain and grain products might reach the 
markets of the East. In this way the corn of America 
affected the politics of the United States; and to-day this 
nation employs a great army of people to study how 
to increase the food supply of the country in order that 
the people may continue to prosper. 

The heroic tale to be found in The Story of Corn should 
be exceedingly profitable to the youth of the country, for 
it enables them to understand somewhat the widespread 
power of the man who produces the world's food. 

The Story of Corn is a companion book to The Story of 
Cotton, and the two should make a good course in ele- 
mentary economic history for the last year of the grammar 
school or the first year of the high school. 

In the preparation of this book, thanks are due especially 
to the United States Department of Agriculture, to W. K. 
Boyd, Professor of American History, and W. T. Laprade, 
Professor of European History, Trinity College, Durhani, 
N. C. 

Eugene C. Brooks 
Durham, North Carolina 



A LIST OF THE MAPS 

PAGE 

The cereal-producing areas of the world 14 

Map showing the transportation lines of the world in 1916. . . 54 

North America in 1650 61 

A physical map of the United States 82 

Early highways to the West 95 

Map showing the claims of the thirteen states. 114 

The United States at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
showing the distribution of population per square mile and 

the center of population 124 

Map showing the distribution of railroads in the United States 

in 1850 : 193 

The distribution of population in the United States at the 

beginning of the twentieth century 203 

Map showing the areas in which hogs were raised in 1909. ... 210 

Map showing the production of corn in the United States in 

1849 216 

Map showing the distribution of railroads in the United States 

in 1916 234 

The production of corn in the United States 250 

The corn-raising areas of the world 272 




Photograph by King Prints Co. 

A modern American silo, in which corn is stored for use 
as food for stock 



THE STORY OF CORN 

AND 
THE WESTWARD MIGRATION 

CHAPTER I 

The Struggle for Food 

The Feeding Instinct. The first instinct of every 
being is to secure food for the needs of its body. 
The moment any Uving thing appears in the world 
it begins to feel about for food. The infant animal 
makes its wants known by signs, and the little plant 
begins to send its tiny rootlets around in the soil. 
The body is extremely sensitive to the pangs of 
hunger, and responds more readily to its call than 
to any other stimulus. 

When the body is insufficiently nourished, both 
the mind and the body become abnormal. The 
child in the schoolroom is unable to respond to 
the demands of the teacher; the statesman is un- 
able to hold firmly the reins of government; and 
the laborer in the fields, in the store, or in the 
factory is unable to render efficient service. When 
the weakening organs begin to call for support, and 
the life currents draw heavily on the stored-up 
energy of the body, all the native habits of the 
individual are greatly exaggerated or undergo a 



2 The Story of Corn 

sudden change. In the lower animals, whether we 
consider the common earthworm or the monarch 
of the forest, the effect is the same; and among the 
races of men, whether we consider the most bestial 
cannibal that feeds on the captives taken in war 
or the most exalted ruler in the universe, the instinct 
is still the same. Hunger would turn a king into a 
savage; it can take away a mother's love and drive 
her to feed on her child; it sometimes fills the slums 
of our cities with thieves and thugs, makes null and 
void all law and order, and turns men into demons. 
Therefore the feeding instinct is one of the great 
motive powers that drive all life and that make all 
living things active. How to secure sufficient and 
wholesome food is a problem that confronts every 
individual. It is the chief concern of every family, 
and the prosperity of the home depends upon the 
ease with which its food may be secured and 
prepared. 

This problem of securing food is one of the lead- 
ing subjects discussed in our legislative halls, since 
it affects labor conditions, commerce, and interna- 
tional relations. Indeed, the struggle for food has 
been one of the determining factors in the develop- 
ment of the social institutions, and it is to-day a 
subject that concerns the average man in the morn- 
ing when he begins his daily toil as well as in the 
evening when he lays aside the cares of the day 
for his needed rest. 

Relation of Food to the Body. To be intensely 
hungry is a violation of a fundamental law of life. 



The Struggle for Food j 

Therefore nature has endowed all animals, the 
worm as well as the lion, with complete organs for 
securing food. The dog, the fox, the cat, and other 
animals of their kind have a keen scent which leads 
them to food; the hog has a stout nose for rooting, 
the chicken long claws for scratching, the wolf 
dangerous fangs for tearing its prey to pieces. In 
short, every animal, according to its nature, is 
endowed with the means for providing itself with 
food. There are many different kinds of animals, 
and in many cases one kind feeds upon another. 
Therefore, in the bodily structure of each are found 
organs for fighting, or for escaping a natural enemy. 
The deer has fleet feet, the bird has swift wings, the 
porcupine has prickly quills, the stag has antlers, 
the horse has strong legs, while the lion's strength 
makes him king of beasts. 

The structure of an animal determines in a 
measure the nature and kind of food it must have. 
In all this struggle for food some animals, like the 
deer or horse, depend upon roots, herbs, leaves, and 
grasses, while others, like the lion and tiger, feed 
upon other animals. But in either case they take 
the food in its raw state and eat it as nature provides 
it. The beast of the forest takes little thought for 
the morrow. He eats of what he finds to-day until 
the body is satisfied; then much of his vicious nature 
disappears and he lazily drowses his time away until 
the pangs of hunger begin to reappear and drive him 
forth again. He is unable to provide for the future, 
and hunger is at the same time his greatest enemy 



4 The Story of Corn 

and his greatest stimulus to action. Animals, such 
as the wolf, the tiger, and the lion, that live chiefly 




Courtesy of Field Museum, Chicago 

A Pygmy home in the Philippines. By many students the Pygmy 

people are thought to he more like the primitive man 

than any other existing race 

on the flesh of other animals are usually more 
vicious than those living on vegetable food. 

We are not able to prove conclusively that certain 
kinds of food produce traits of character alike 
in man and beast. But, nevertheless, wherever 
man roams wild, naked in body save for the coarse 
hair that covers him, and digs in marshy places for 
roots which he eats raw, he would certainly seem to 
be not so far removed from the animal that has 
similar tastes and habits. The primitive man who 



The Struggle for Food 5 

• 

prowled around, club in hand, and who slept in 
caves, was no doubt a being superior to the bear or 
lion. Yet we are told that he fed on raw meat and 
drank blood, and that he could tear his enemy's 
heart out and eat it raw. He does not, therefore, 
appear to have been far removed in character from 
lions or tigers that lay in wait for their prey and 
tore their victims limb from limb, and, after feeding 
on the flesh until the stomach was full, lapped up the 
blood and strolled lazily away. Consequently we 
seem to be justified in concluding that the character 
of an animal is in a great measure shaped by its food. 

The Story of Prometheus and Epimetheus. The 
superiority of man over the lower animals is well 
illustrated by the story of Prometheus and Epime- 
theus as told by Plato: 

' ' Once upon a time there were gods only, and no 
mortal creatures. But when the time came that 
animals should also be created, the gods fashioned 
them out of earth and fire and various mixtures ; but 
when they were about to bring them into the light 
of day, they ordered Prometheus and Epimetheus to 
equip them, and to distribute to them severally their 
proper qualities. Epimetheus said to Prometheus: 

*' 'Let me distribute, and do you inspect.' 

*'This was agreed, and Epimetheus made the 
distribution. There were some to whom he gave 
strength without swiftness, or again swiftness with- 
out strength; some he armed and others he left 
unarmed; and devised for the latter some other 
means for preservation, making some large, and 



6 The Story of Corn 

having their size as a protection, and others small, 
whose nature was to fly in the air or burrow in the 
ground. This was to be their way of escape. Thus 
did he compensate them with the view to preventing 
any race from becoming extinct. And when he had 
provided against their destruction by one another, 
he contrived also a means of protecting them against 
the seasons; clothing them with coarse hair and. 
thick skins sufficient for defending them from the 
cold and heat, and for a natural bed of their own 
when they wanted to rest. He furnished them also 
with hoofs and hair and hard and callous skins under 
their feet. Then he gave them varieties of food — to 
some herbs of the soil, to others fruits of the trees, 
and to others, roots; and to some again he gave other 
animals as food. In this way the race was preserved. 
*'Epimetheus, however, not being very wise, for- 
got that he had distributed among the brute animals 
all the qualities that he had to give, and when he 
came to man, who was still unprovided, he was 
terribly perplexed. Now, while he was in his per- 
plexity, Prometheus came to inspect the distribu- 
tion, and he found that the other animals were 
suitably furnished, but that man alone was naked and 
shoeless and had neither bed nor means of defense. 
The appointed hour was approaching in which man 
was to go forth into the light of day; and Prome- 
theus, not knowing how he could devise man's salva- 
tion, stole from the gods fire and the art of working 
in metals, and gave to him the foresight and wis- 
dom necessary to the support of life." 



The Struggle for Food 7 

Plato wrote this story to teach the Greeks that 
man has the wisdom to change all things around 
him and the foresight to store up for the future, 
but that the lower animals must use without change 
what they can find in nature. The animal walks 
always with his face toward the earth, looking . 
for what is prepared by nature for his use; but 
man walks always erect, with his head up, looking 
beyond himself. 

Wisdom and Foresight developed slowly. Since 
in his daily life man differs from the lower animals 
according to the amount of wisdom he displays, it 
is interesting to study different people and their 
characteristics — their manner of life, the food they 
eat, the foresight they display, and the wisdom 
they use in securing and preparing food. There 
are races of men so much like the lower animals 
that they labor only so long as they are hungry or 
uncomfortable. In Africa and South America cer- 
tain very primitive races live mo^e like beasts than 
men. They roam about from place to place, sleep- 
ing in tents, caves, or thick underbrush. They feed 
chiefly on roots, fruit, snails, grasshoppers, and ants. 
They have few cooking utensils ; a stone, or a hole in 
the ground, is all they need. They gorge themselves 
and then sleep until hunger calls them again to 
action. They have little foresight and less wisdom. 
The finer human characteristics have not yet been 
developed in them, and their habits in many respects 
are more like those of the beasts. 

The North American Indian progressed farther 



8 The Story of Corn 

than these men. The Indian possessed some of the 
gifts of Prometheus. He had learned the art of 




Photograph by Rau 

The Bedouins of Algeria still lead a wandering life, driving their 

cattle from place to place in search of pasture. Though 

superior to the primitive man, from generation 

to generation they are hut little more 

civilized than their ancestors 

making superior weapons ; he had stone mortars for 
grinding his grain; he knew how to dry his meat in 
order to preserve it for use later ; he had learned to 
bury his grain in the ground and wait for it to bring 
forth again; he had learned to lay up the unused 
portions of his food for future use. There was cooper- 
ation in the home : the fathers and sons went hunt- 
ing and fishing to secure the animal food, while the 
mothers and daughters cultivated the patches around 



The Struggle for Food g 

the wigwams and thus provided the vegetable food. 

It is quite probable that women invented agri- 
culture, and were the first to understand the art 
of sowing and reaping. 

Among primitive people wild animals were taken 
captive for food. When there was more food than 
was needed for immediate use the live animal was 
probably kept in captivity until the previous sup- 
ply was exhausted. Gradually the captive animal 
lost its wild nature, and thus was developed our first 
domestic animal, perhaps the dog. In the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, the women were governed in theif 
selection of food by the native food plants in their 
community, and by the ease with which that food 
could be preserved for future use. While the men 
were domesticating animals and thereby learning 
to provide food for times when they could not 
engage in hunting, the women were learning how 
to cultivate the land and to reap more than they 
had sown, and to lay the surplus away for time 
of need. In this way mankind received the gifts 
of Prometheus. 

How Man made the Animals help him. We 
have already seen that certain tribes of men were 
little better than the beasts of the forest. It was 
not until man learned to provide a fixed home and 
to take better care of his family that he showed him- 
self greatly superior to the beast. When home life 
began, family ties were strengthened, love for the 
different members of the family increased, and all 
the finer attributes began to develop. 



10 



The Story of Corn 



But man needed helpers in his struggle with the 
outside world, and so did the animals of the forest. 
Man had wisdom and foresight ; animals had physical 
strength. Man needed the animals, and they 
needed man. But before man learned the value of 
different animals it is quite probable that he used 
them only for food. The dog, at first used as a 
food, later learned to aid man in capturing other 
animals, and gradually ceased to be looked upon 
as a food. Instead it became an important factor 
in securing food. The horse and the camel were 
also probably used for food at first, but on account 

of their superior 
strength they be- 
came beasts of bur- 
den, — -the means of 
securing food, and 
aids in fighting the 
enemies of the tribe. 
The sheep, the goat, 
and the cow were 
also domesticated, to 
be eaten in time of 
need. These animals were of double value to man, 
for their milk was a wholesome food and could be pre- 
served in the form of butter and cheese, and the hair 
or hides could be converted into clothing; besides, 
they could also be used like the horse, as beasts of 
burden. But man did not stop here. He went into 
the forest and caught the wild hog, tamed it, and 
improved the quality of its flesh, until it has become 




From 'The Tree Dwellers" 

The wild hog of the for est ^ iamedy 
and fed upon cereals^ has devel- 
oped into the domes- 
ticated hog 



The Struggle J or Food ii 

a very important food to-day. The fowls of the air 
were Hkewise domesticated. The hen, the goose, 
the duck, the turkey, the pigeon, and the peacock 
gave their eggs and their flesh for food and their 
feathers for bedding and even for clothing. 

Thus man continued to rise superior to the beasts 
of the forest and the fowls of the air. They contrib- 
uted to his needs; but, as they did so, man's wisdom 
had to be increased in order that he might pro- 
vide food for them also, and preserve them so that 
they might be of more value to him. One must 
help the other, and the value of the domestic ani- 
mals is determined by the care man takes of them. 
In providing food for them it was discovered that 
the hard cereals that had already been found so 
valuable to man made the best food for his domestic 
animals. Therefore the cereals became the chief 
food of both man and beast. 

The Corn of the World. The term '^corn'' is 
applied in agriculture to the seed of the cereal 
plants. The word is often understood locally to 
mean that kind of cereal which is the leading crop 
of the district, and it may be wheat, barley, oats, 
maize (Indian corn), rye, millet, or even rice. It is 
written in Genesis: ''And all countries came into 
Egypt to Joseph to buy corn; because the famine 
was sore in the land.'' The grain mentioned in this 
quotation was probably wheat. Ruth gleaned ears 
of corn in the barley fields of Boaz, while in Pha- 
raoh's wonderful dream the seven good ears of corn 
that devoured the seven thin and blasted ears were 



12 



The Story of Corn 



probably ears of wheat. Again, in Roman history 
we read of a great popular uprising because bread 
was scarce, and the Gracchi became great tribunes 
of the people because they advocated more favorable 
corn laws. The grain referred to then was wheat. 
Rice is the corn of China and Japan, rye of northern 
Europe, oats of Scotland, and wheat of England. In 
America an ear of corn means an ear of maize, 
or Indian corn, the national grain of our country. 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

A housewife of the Ecuador highlands grinding oats for bread, Oats^ 
originally the grain food of Europe^ is still the ^^corn" of Scotland 



The Struggle for Food 13 

It was natural that the cereals should become the 
source of all our bread. They can be preserved 
easily, while tubers and fruits soon decay. Wheat, 
barley, oats, Indian corn, millet, and rye, if properly 
cared for, remain for the most part unhurt by cold, 
heat, dryness, or dampness. Hence their great value 
to the world. 

The Value of Corn. In the earlier ages a man's 
wealth was measured by the number of his domestic 
animals. But in order to care for them as well 
as for himself it was necessary for him to store up 
enough food in the harvest season to last until the 
harvest came again. Therefore, as the size of the 
family and the number of domestic animals increased, 
how to secure food became a greater and greater 
problem. Man had to stop his wandering life and 
make the land increase its yield. But cultivating 
the soil requires time, labor, and patience. The 
stronger domestic animals, such as the horse, 
the ox, and the camel, were trained to work in the 
field. Man's wisdom and foresight increased, and 
he began to observe the seasons and note their 
influence on the soil, the plant, and the health of 
his family. He learned to plan and plant, and wait 
for results. He built a home for his family and 
shelters for his animals ; he measured the boundaries 
of his own land and became king of the earth. 

As his foresight developed, more and more ce- 
reals were pfoduced. With them man has been 
able to make the wild hogs beg food at his hands. 
Geese and ducks, no longer wild, call for their 



The Struggle for Food 



15 



portion as the sun rises and sets. His sheep and 
goats, his cows and horses, all acknowledge him their 
lord and master. By owning the land and control- 
ling the products thereof he controls the food, cloth- 
ing, and shelter of mankind. Thus it was natural 
that those who controlled the land should become, on 
account of their wisdom, kings of men and lords of the 
land, or landlords. How man rose to this lordship 
is a long story, and one full of the greatest interest. 



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Copyright by Uaderwood & Underwood, N. Y. 



Plowing in the valley of Ajalon, Palestine. The ox, one of the 

first animals trained to work in the fields, still performs its 

humble tasks for man in many regions of the world 



CHAPTER II 
Mythica-l Stories of Our Food -Giving Plants 

The Mystery of Life, ''The earth is the mother 
of all, and the stones are her bones/' said the 
ancients, and those who understood only partly 
the strange processes going on in the earth were 
considered the wisest of men. In fact, primitive 
peoples in all ages have had the notion that this 
strange process, seen in the growth and fruitage of 
the plants, is controlled by special gods, and we 
find many strange religious customs associated with 
cultivating the plants and harvesting the grain. So 
important were the coming and going of the seasons, 
and so regular were they in obeying some myste- 
rious law, that earlier peoples felt instinctively that 
the seasons were also controlled by special deities, 
probably in many instances the same as those direct- 
ing the growth of the plant. Therefore, much of 
the religion of the people in ancient times was given 
to the worship of the deities that made the plant 
to grow and the grain to ripen. 

Although in those early ages man did not know 
how to make the soil increase its yield, he did observe 
that the river valleys were the most fertile parts 
of the earth. Therefore, the great civilizations of 
ancient times were always located in the great river 
valleys. Here resided the gods who controlled 

i6 



Mythical Stones of Our Food-Giving Plants ly 

the seasons and directed the growth of the food- 
giving plants. In studying the most renowned river 
valleys of the East, such as the Ganges, the Euphra- 
tes, or the Nile, or the great valleys of North and 
South America, such as the Mississippi and La 
Plata, we discover that the ancient races worshiped 
special deities who were supposed to watch over the 
growing grain, and that they had strange ceremonies 
to celebrate the sowing and the harvesting of grain. 
These facts show how intimately the religions of 
these people were associated with the cultivation 
of the soil. The Hebrews alone had one God, 
Jehovah. He was an all-wise father who guided 
them in their sowing and reaping as well as in their 
sickness and health. 

The Egyptian Myth: Isis and Osiris. One of 
the oldest civilizations of the world was located on 
the banks of the Nile River near its mouth. This 
river takes its rise beyond the vast desert that 
stretches far to the southward, and flows for many 
hundreds of miles through a barren, burning waste 
of sand, bringing a tremendous volume of water to 
refresh the lowlands near its mouth. This in itself 
was a great mystery. Periodically, as if guided by 
the hand of some deity, this mighty river rises and 
swells its bosom until its waters overflow its banks 
and spread far out, miles and miles from its bed. 
This periodical overflow brings to the lower valley 
sufficient water for the production of food in plenty. 
As it is to-day, so it was in the days of Joseph and 
the Pharaohs; and since all life was supported by 



i8 The Story of Corn 

the Nile, the rehgion of the Egyptians was always 
associated with that river. 

In the mythology of Egypt there is a story to the 
effect that the crystal springs of the Nile bubble 
up in the garden of Paradise, the home of the gods. 
Then, wandering through lovely meadows, the 
infant stream finally expands into the lordly and 
majestic river which offers life and plenty to the 
world. The overflow of this great river is hailed 
to-day with shouts of joy and thanksgiving, for its 
waters cover the fields that bring forth grain in 
plenty. Thus' it was also when Jacob's sons went 
down into Egypt to buy corn. 

The god Osiris, the greatest deity of the Egyptians, 
controlled the flow of the Nile and was universally 
worshiped in Egypt. He was worshiped likewise 
in other countries, whose people came down into 
Egypt to buy corn, for he had his home in the garden 
of Paradise and sent the water down into the burning 
desert that the people might have corn. 

But, according to the mythology of Egypt, Osiris 
was murdered one day. The Nile \Yas thereupon 
still, and the waters refused to overflow the banks. 
There was famine in the land. Isis, the wife of 
Osiris and queen of Paradise, hearing of the death 
of her husband, sought his remains in the great 
river whose waters were silent, mourning for his 
death. When the body was found Isis was over- 
come with grief. But as her tears began to fall the 
river began to rise and the waters again began to 
overflow the banks. It was Isis, the goddess of 



Mythical Stories of Our Food-Giving Plants ig 



heaven, who had caused the water to come again 
and the famine to cease ; therefore Isis was worshiped 
as the immediate cause of the Nile's overflow and 
of the people's prosperity. On the monuments she 
is called the goddess mother, the mistress of heaven, 
the eye of the sun, and the queen of the gods. 

The Greek and Roman Myth: Ceres and Pro- 
serpine. The Greek goddess of seed and harvest 
was Demeter, who 
presided over the 
sowing, reaping, and 
grinding of corn. 
The Romans wor- 
shiped Ceres, who 
was the creator of 
food for man . When 
the Greeks settled in 
Italy and associated 
with the Romans 
they adopted Ceres 
as their goddess, but 
gave to her many of 
the mythological in- 
cidents which origi- 
nated with Demeter. 
These stories were believed by both Greeks and 
Romans. The most noted of these is the story of 
Ceres and Proserpine. 

The Greeks and Romans believed- that Ceres, 
during July and August, was driving over the earth 
caring for the growing plants, and that during the 




From a painting in Pompeii 

CereSy the goddess of seed and harvest 



20 The Story of Corn 

month of September she was ripening the fruit and 
making the fields yellow with nodding heads of 
golden grain. These ancient peoples believed that 
formerly plants had grown and ripened all the year 
round; but one day while Ceres was caring for the 
ripening grain and fruits over the earth, her daughter 
Proserpine, a young woman of great beauty, was 
seized by Pluto, the god of the lower regions, who 
carried her to his home in Hades. When Ceres 
returned home she was stricken with grief, and over 
the whole earth she drove her chariot, calling upon 
all things to help her in her search, but in vain. 
Then in her great grief the goddess refused to allow 
the grain to grow and to ripen, and there was famine 
in all the world. , , 

Jupiter, however, seeing the great distress below, 
sent Mercury, the wing-footed messenger of the 
gods, to Pluto, commanding him to release Proser- 
pine. She was restored to her mother, and there 
was great rejoicing in all the earth. Vegetation at 
once began to take on a new life, and the grain 
began again to grow and the fruit to ripen. But 
when Ceres saw her daughter she feared one thing 
— that she had eaten food in Pluto's kingdom. She 
questioned Proserpine, who replied that she had 
eaten only some pomegranate seeds. 

*' Alas! '' cried Ceres, ''you must remain with Pluto 
in the realm of darkness one half of your time.*' 

Thus the seasons are accounted for. While Pro- 
serpine is with Pluto, Ceres is sad and there is no 
vegetation and it is winter. But when mother and 



Mythical Stories of Our Food-Giving Plants 21 

daughter are together the earth is covered with the 
gifts of Ceres, and it is summer throughout the world. 
The Indian Myth: Mondamin and Hiawatha. 
It is well known that the bread of the Indian came 
from maize, or Indian corn. The story of Mon- 
damin as told in Hiawatha is the Indian myth of 
the origin of maize. When Hiawatha was a little 




From Hiawatha "Industrial Reader-' 

Then the ripened ears he gathered^ 
Gave the first Feast of Mondamin 



22 " The Story of Corn 

boy, he lived in a beautiful country near the ''Big 
Sea Water/' It was customary for all Indian boys, 
when approaching manhood, to fast for several 
days in order that the Great Spirit might tell them 
what spirit would be their guide through life. 
Therefore when it came time for Hiawatha to go 
through his season of fasting he went far away into 
the forest, and there alone he built his wigwam and 
began his fasting. Late in the afternoon of the 
fourth day of his fasting he was faint and weak, 
and as he lay on the floor of his wigwam a beautiful 
youth in garments of greens and yellows of many 
shades, with green plumes in his yellow hair, came 
and stood before him and spoke to him: 

" 'From the Master of Life descending, 
I, the friend of man, Mondamin, 
Cdme to warn you and instruct you, 
How by struggle and by labor 
You shall gain what you have prayed for. 
Rise up from your bed of branches, 
Rise, O youth, and wrestle with me!' " 

Hiawatha arose at once and began wrestling with 

Mondamin, and as he wrestled Hiawatha grew 

stronger. But when the sun went down the contest 

ended, and Mondamin said he would return the 

following day. For three days they wrestled, and 

each day Hiawatha grew stronger, until at the end 

of the third contest Mondamin cried: 

" 'O Hiawatha! 
Bravely have you wrestled with me, 
Thrice have wrestled stoutly with me, 
And the Master of Life, who sees us, 
He will give to you the triumph ! 



Mythical Stories of Our Food-Giving Plants 23 

. . . To-morrow 
Is the last day of your conflict, 
Is the last day of your fasting. 
You will conquer and o'ercome me; 
Make a bed for me to lie in, 
Where the rain may fall upon me. 
Where the sun may come and warm me; 
Strip these garments, green and yellow, 
Strip this nodding plumage from me. 
Lay me in the earth, and make it 
Soft and loose and light above me. 
Let no hand disturb my slumber, 
Let no weed nor worm molest me, 
Let not Kahgahgee, the raven, 
Come to haunt me and molest me, 
Only come yourself to watch me. 
Till I wake, and start, and quicken. 
Till I leap into the sunshine.' " 

As Mondamin had predicted, on the last day of 
the contest, which was the last day of Hiawatha^s 
fasting, Mondamin was overcome and Hiawatha 
did as he was commanded. His fast being ended, 
he returned to the wigwam of old Nokomis. 

" But the place was not forgotten 
Where he wrestled with Mondamin; 
Nor forgotten nor neglected 
Was the grave where lay Mondamin, 
Sleeping in the rain and sunshine. 
Where his scattered plumes and garments 
Faded in the rain and sunshine. 
Day by day did Hiawatha 
Go to wait and watch beside it; 
Kept the dark mould soft above it. 
Kept it clean from weeds and insects, 
Drove away, with scoffs and shoutings, 
Kahgahgee, the king of ravens. 
Till at length a small green feather 



24 The Story oj Corn 

From the earth shot slowly upward, 
Then another and another, 
And before the Summer ended 
Stood the maize in all its beauty, 
With its shining robes about it, 
And its long, soft, yellow tresses; 
And in rapture Hiawatha 
Cried aloud, ' It is Mondamin ! 
Yes, the friend of man, Mondamin!* 



And still later, when the Autumn 
Changed the long, green leaves to yellow, 
And the soft and juicy kernels 
Grew like wampum hard and yellow. 
Then the ripened ears he gathered. 
Stripped the withered husks from off them, 
As he once had stripped the wrestler. 
Gave the first Feast of Mondamin, 
And made known unto the people 
This new gift of the Great Spirit ! " 

This is thQ beautiful story of the origin of Indian 
corn, which has been and is to-day of so much 
importance to the world. 

Ancient Use of other Vegetables. It was a belief 
of the Cherokee Indians that all the diseases came 
from animals, but that plants contained a cure for 
every disease. It is probable, therefore, that a 
large number of the vegetable foods found on our 
tables came into use first as medicinal plants. 

The cabbage was originally regarded as a remedy 
for drunkenness and various diseases. The Greeks 
thought that asparagus was a good remedy for 
intestinal troubles, and that the beet had very fine 
medicinal qualities. The cucumber was supposed 
to have all sorts of healing qualities, while lettuce, 



Mythical Stories of Our Food-Giving Plants 25 

the favorite plant of Adonis, possessed certain nar- 
cotic virtues. Garlic aroused the valor of warriors, 
and it was, therefore, avoided in times of peace. 
Parsley excited the brain to agreeable sensations, 
watercress was very refreshing, and onions were 
good for preserving the health. Hyssop renewed 
and purified the blood, thyme was good to destroy 
the effect of a serpent's bite, penny-royal was taken 
to facilitate digestion, mint preserved milk from 
curdling, ginger was a cure for scurvy, and asafetida 
was in ancient times the chief seasoning for food, 
since it was supposed to promote digestion. All 
these vegetables were in use long before the Christian 
era. In fact, it is impossible to go back to a time 
when they were not known. Patroclus probably 
peeled onions, Achilles washed cabbages, and many 
centuries before the Trojan wars the chief baker 
for Pharaoh fell into disrepute, probably, because 
of the poor bread he served. 



CHAPTER III 
Food a Factor in Civilization 

Civilization improves as Food improves. Since 
the ancients believed that the gods had special care 
of the grain, it is only natural that they should 
strive in every way possible to make the food from 
this grain pleasing in the sight of the gods. It 
has been said that the first use made of fire was 
to prepare food for the religious feast. Whether 
this be true or not is immaterial. But this we 
know, from studying the manners and customs of 
people, that since the first meal was brought smoking 
hot from the flames or dying embers, man in his 
progress from primitive life has learned from 
experience that his^ disposition is affected to a 
certain extent by the quantity and quality of the 
food that passes into his stomach. Moreover, as 
man progresses he improves his food in order that 
he may the more easily utilize its health-giving 
properties. He not only improves what he has, 
but he is constantly seeking throughout the world 
the most wholesome food, in order that the mind 
and body may profit by it. 

''Tell me what thou eatest and I will tell thee 
who thou art" is an old saying. This is just another 
way of stating that the food we eat is a sign of 
civilization. A coarse savage spirit inhabits a coarse, 

26 



Food a Factor in Civilization 



27 



rough, animal body, whether the body be that of 
man or beast. However, by the proper care of 





Photograph by E. J. Hall 

Adobe oven in an Indian pueblo. An important improvement in 
the art of cooking. The use of the oven among these Indians 
indicates a higher civilization than that of most of 
their North American neighbors 

the body and the proper selection and preparation 
of food, it is possible to improve the disposition of 
people. The improvement in the art of cooking, 
therefore, has been of the greatest benefit to man- 
kind. It has taken the raw flesh of animals slain 



28 The Story of Corn 

in the forest and so changed it that a wholesome food 
is the result. It has taken the leaves from the grow- 
ing plant and the grain from the sheaves and has 
converted them into a life-giving force sufificient to 
withstand the increasing mental and physical strain. 
Nature makes us hungry, but art creates and modi- 
fies and directs the appetite and enables civilization 
to move forward. 

Ancient Knowledge of Cooking. It has ever 
required the greatest skill to convert the corn of a 
country into a wholesome food. How to make a 
wholesome bread out of the cereals found in the 
community engaged the attention of primitive man 
long before the beginning of rcQorded history. 
Bread is very ancient in its origin, and the art of 
bread baking is older than history itself. Man 
learned from experience that bread supports life 
better than any other single food except milk, and 
much thought was devoted to its preparation even 
in the very earliest times. 

Sarah, the venerable wife of Abraham, knew well 
how to mix flour and water into a shapely pone, 
which she baked in the hot ashes before her tent. 
The most ancient Egyptians knew how to make 
a light, wholesome bread, known as leavened bread, 
an art that the Hebrews carried with them into 
Palestine. The Greeks learned to mix flour, wine, 
pepper, oil, and milk, and the ladies of Greece 
delighted their friends with puff cakes whose ex- 
quisite and perfumed flour was kneaded with the 
precious honey of Mount Hymettus. The Roman 



Food a Factor in Civilization 



29 



patrician ate a bread made by mixing flour, salt, oil, 
and milk, and when the white man first came to 
America the Indian taught him to make an ash 



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Sarah did in the days of Abraham 



JO The Story of Corn 

cake from Indian corn. Not only has the world 
been studying bread making since the earliest 
recorded time, but the more advanced nations 
noticed real differences in the value of foods. Many 
centuries before the Christian era Moses taught his 
people the difference between clean and unclean 
food. The Greeks, clever students of life and of 
how to live, studied the influence of food on the mind 
and body, and taught all subsequent generations 
how to live. 

Importance of Good Food. An individuars worth 
to the world is measured by his ability to think and 
to work. A sound mind in a sound body, therefore, 
is essential to one's well-being, and whoever damages 
the health of the body, either his own or that of 
another, has committed a sin against humanity 
and retarded the world's progress. It makes little 
difference whether the sin is committed in ignorance 
or is a conscious violation of the laws of God — the 
results are the same, and the world suffers. 

The living body draws its nourishment from 
three sources, — the air we breathe, the water we 
drink, and the food we eat, — and each of these 
essentials to life may be so polluted by man as to 
damage the health of the body and weaken the 
mind. It was once supposed that these forces 
were presided over by special deities and that when 
sickness came it was because the gods were angry 
with their people. There is an element of truth 
in this old notion; but in those ancient days man 
gave all the credit or blame to the gods. We know 



Food a Factor in Civilization ji 

that man himself is for the most part responsible for 
the diseases that come to him. The world is con- 
trolled by law, and there are laws that govern the 
physical well-being of man. When he breaks these 
laws man suffers. 

In providing food, man at times takes little 
thought for the actual needs and welfare of the 
body and throws into his stomach food so poorly 
prepared that the digestive organs cannot use it 
properly. As a result health is impaired, the body 
damaged, the disposition made vicious, the thinking 
weakened, and the whole character affected. Hence 
the proper selection and preparation of food is one 
of the most important subjects for both men and 
women to study to-day. When Moses gave his 
health laws to the Hebrews he made them equal 
in importance to the ten commandments. And it 
is just as necessary for a person to know how to 
provide proper food as it is for him to know that 
it is wrong to steal. If through carelessness or 
ignorance he take away the health of another,, by 
giving or selling improper food, he has caused more 
damage than if he had stolen his neighbor's goods. 
Therefore our schools to-day are making the subject 
of food selection and preparation one of the impor- 
tq.nt subjects for children to study. The ancient 
nations had severe laws against tampering with 
food, and to-day one of the most serious offenses 
against our law should be to put on the market an 
impure or adulterated food, or to misrepresent the 
quality of any article of food. 



32 



The Story of Corn 



The Bread of the World. It has been well said 
that the quality of the bread used by the inhabitants 
of any country is a fair measure of their civilization, 
and of all cooking processes now in use by civilized 
man the cooking of bread is perhaps the most 
important. The kind of bread, however, in a given 



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Panamanian children pounding rice in a rude wooden mortar 



Food a Factor in Civilization jj 

country has always depended upon the kind of 
corn or grain or food-giving plants found in that 
country. 

Wheat bread is probably the most widely used 
bread in the world's history. It is doubtless the 
oldest bread in the world, since it is believed that 
the original home of wheat was in the Mesopotamian 
valley, where it is thought the human race had its 
beginning. Rye bread is next in importance to-day, 
and though it has not had such a long, continuous 
use as wheat it is used in Germany, France, Spain, 
and Greece. Buckwheat, or black wheat, is the 
staple bread flour of Russia, Siberia, and Brittany. 
Soya bread is eaten in some places, especially by the 
inhabitants of China and Japan. It is made from 
an oily pea that is native to these countries. ' Millet 
flour, made from the millet seed, produces a whole- 
some bread that is eaten by the inhabitants of 
India, China, Egypt, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. 

Rice, however, is the staple food of the majority 
of the inhabitants of the world, although less eaten 
in America than in Asia, Africa, and even in 
Europe. Barley bread was an ancient food of 
note, but it is not used to-day to any great 
extent, except in portions of Russia. Oats was 
originally the grain food of Europe; it has been 
eaten in Germany for at least a thousand years, 
but to-day is eaten more in Scotland than in any 
other country. Arrowroot starch or flour is derived 
from a tropical plant grown in both the East 
and the West Indies, and when made into a bread 



34 



The Story of Corn 



\ 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

In China rice i,s the staple food of the people. The grain is easily 
grown and has been cultivated from very ancient times 

is eaten by the people of those countries. Tapioca 
flour makes a wholesome bread that is eaten by the 
inhabitants of Central America and South America. 
The flour is made from the roots of the plant, and 
is becoming very popular in Europe and America. 
Sago bread is derived from the pith found in the 
stem of different varieties of the palm in Sumatra, 
Java, and Borneo,' and is wholesome for the people 
of those and adjoining islands. Iceland moss, too, 
is used as a food. The Eskimos purify the moss 
by washing it, and then make of it a fine flour that 



Food a Factor in Civilization J5 

is easily made into a bread. Indian corn, or maize, 
was the chief bread food of the North American 
Indians. It was unknown to the Old World when 
Columbus discovered America, but so important 
has it become that to-day it is cultivated on every 
continent and in almost every civilized country 
on the globe. 

Rise of the Baker. The preparation of the food 
for the dignitaries of the world has always been 
an important matter. You will recall that while 
Joseph was serving in the house of Pharaoh he was 
cast into prison. Later, the royal baker offended 
his lord, the king of Egypt, and was also cast into 
prison. Here he had a dream which Joseph inter- 
preted. His dream is interesting: ''Behold, I had 
three white baskets on my head; and in the upper- 
most basket there was all manner of baked meats 
for Pharaoh.'* But in his dream the birds picked 
the food, and that act foretold his doom. The 
Hebrews, in leaving Egypt, took with them their 
knowledge of bread making, but they discarded the 
leavened bread of Egypt and made specific regula- 
tions concerning the preparation of bread ''in the 
ovens and in the frying pans.*' 

The baker, however, became an important person 
when people stopped their tribal wanderings and 
settled down to fixed ways of living. Greece had 
the most skillful bakers in the world. From that 
country they went to Rome, and the Greek baker, 
like the Greek school teacher, became of importance. 
It is a significant fact that the person who could 



36 



The Story of Corn 




Courtesy of Schulze Bakery Co. 

In the preparation of clean food in a modern American bakery ^ 

thousands of loaves are made daily, untouched by 

the baker^s hands 

prepare food after the most approved manner for 
those who followed intellectual pursuits was given 
honor almost equal to that of the person who taught 
or trained the intellect of youth. The bakers of 
Rome formed an association, and sometimes one of 
them was raised to the dignity of senator. 

Bread was supposed to contain many properties, 
according to the mixture and preparation. Hence 
the baker's art was valuable as well as important. 
Different kinds of bread were prepared for different 
people. The slave was given a special kind, that 
would keep him humble and submissive ; the athlete 
another kind, that would make him strong and 
supple; princes and senators another kind, and the 
fashionable ladies still another. Each was supposed 
to give to the individual eating it a certain force. 



Food a Factor in Civilization 



37 




Courtesy of Schulze Bakery Co. 

Here the bread is shown descending from the oven room above to 

the cooling tables^ ready for the automatic 

wrapping machine 

In the fourteenth century the baker went through 
a four years' apprenticeship, after which he became 
a master baker and received a Ucense to pursue his 
occupation. 

How Nations have fought for Corn. Man cannot 
live without food, and the great wars of the world 
have, in the main, been wars of conquest for new 
territory, new river valleys or fertile plains where 
the cereals grow and where the increasing population 
may receive food in plenty. It is an interesting 
fact that civilization had its birth in the great river 
valleys of the world, and that the great nations of 
the world have been those that controlled the rich, 
food-producing lands. 

We have only a few records of a great civiliza- 
tion that once lived in the Euphrates Valley, where 



j8 The Story of Corn 

Babylon and Nineveh contended with one another, 
and where, it is said, the wheat of the world had its 




The fertile valley of the J or dan ^ one of the coveted food-producing 

areas of the ancient world. Here were given the first lessons 

in food selection and preparation 

origin. From this very ancient beginning, nations 
have followed one another in rapid succession, each 
contesting for the great valleys, only to be in turn 
captured and destroyed by a more vigorous people. 
Jacob's sons, driven by hunger, went down into the 
valley of the Nile, begging for food. Their descend- 
ants, when more than a million strong, being held 
captive by the more powerful Egyptians, at last 
broke away from their captors. They then recap- 
tured the valley of the Jordan, the land of Canaan, 
and there was given the first lesson in careful food 



Food a Factor in Civilization jg 

selection and preparation. The book of Leviticus 
records that the Children of Israel were taught the 
difference between clean and unclean food. 

The Greeks, their own country overcrowded, 
colonized the fertile districts along the shores of the 
Mediterranean. The Romans went to war with 
the Carthaginians for the great grain fields of 
Sicily, and finally annexed the Nile Valley to their 
great empire. The congested tribes along and 
beyond the Danube River pressed down into the 
fertile valleys of Italy, France, and Spain and 
overthrew the Roman Empire. The wandering 
tribes from the cold northland and from across the 
Rhine overran France, England, Scotland, and 
Ireland, and founded nations where the land would 
produce a food supply adequate for the support of 
the people. 

Commerce a Necessity. Man's support must come 
from the cultivation of the soil. We saw in the first 
chapter how the early tribes stopped their wandering 
life, settled down, built homes, tamed the wild 
animals, and began to study the land. When man 
went to work the products derived from the land 
gave food and the necessities of life, and nations 
began to develop. Certain people acquired skill 
in producing certain particular articles that other 
people needed. Certain river valleys became cele- 
brated for the quantity of food produced, and 
other sections of the country became famous for 
the many articles manufactured. To bring about 
an exchange of products, therefore, became desirable 



40 The Story of Corn 

and necessary, and thus we have the beginning of 
commerce. 

When Columbus was a Uttle boy the trade 
between Europe and Asia, and between dififerent 
countries of Europe, had become considerable, and 
from that time wars have frequently been resorted 
to in order to increase trade and to remove all 
restrictions upon it." In your history you may 
read of the great commerce carried on between 
Europe and Asia, and of how dependent were the 
European nations upon this trade with India. You 
may see also how Venice and Genoa became great 
cities because of this trade. But when this inter- 
course was stopped by the Mohammedans it became 
necessary to find a new route to India. It was this 
condition that caused Columbus to sail westward. 

A New Food. When Columbus landed in the 
New World he thought he had reached India. 
Therefore he called the inhabitants ''Indians." 
He found the natives eating a food made from a 
peculiar grain unlike any produced in the Old 
World, and to distinguish it from the corn of Europe 
we have learned to call it ''Indian corn." In 1498 
Columbus observed large fields of this grain growing 
on the island of Haiti, and in writing to Ferdinand 
and Isabella of Spain he spoke of passing through 
eighteen miles of cornfields. A few years later 
another Spaniard, Hernando Cortes, in describing 
his march to the City of Mexico spoke of passing 
through great fields of corn, and nearly every 
explorer of this new world noticed this peculiar 



Food a Factor in Civilization 



41 



plant with its queer-shaped ears of corn. It is 
Uttle wonder that they took special notice of it, 
since all the grain cultivated in Europe was similar 
to wheat, oats, or rye. The corn of the Indians was 
a curiosity. 

Early English explorers, in writing about it, 
described it as follows: ''The graine is about the 
bignesse of our ordinary English pease, and not 
much different in form 
and shape, but of divers 
colours; some w^hite, some 
red, and some blue. All of 
these yielde a very white 
sweet flavoure, and being 
used according to its kind, 
it maketh a very good 
bread." 

The inhabitants of Haiti 
called the grain mahiz, 
hence the name ''maize," 
and European nations 
when referring to it to- 
day still call it maize. Many authorities believe 
that the grain originated in Mexico and took its 
name from a tribe of Indians living in southern 
Mexico. But when Columbus discovered America 
it was the leading food of the Indians from the 
arctic circle to the torrid zone. The grain, however, 
was so unlike the cereals of the Old World that the 
Europeans did not think of using it as a food. They 
watched the Indians parch it or pound it into meal, 




From Mace's "Stories of Heroism" 

An Indian community corn 
bin, Mexico 



42 The Story of Corn 

but the bread made from it was not so pleasing to the 
taste as the European bread, and the early explorers 
ate it only when starvation threatened. Over a hun- 
dred years passed after Columbus's great discovery 
, before the settlers from Europe learned its real value. 
This corn of the Indians, however, was the one 
grain that was to make America prosperous and end 
the great famines of the world. It was this grain 
that saved the first colonies along the coast, and 
supported the pioneers as they pressed westward; 
and the grain that fed the Indians was to provide 
food for the early settlers as they drove the Indians 
from the river valleys along the coast to the lands 
beyond the Mississippi. When the coastal plain 
was settled and all its river valleys taken up, the 
population^ still pressed westward, fighting the 
Indians and the wild beasts, until the fertile valleys 
of the Mississippi and its tributaries were reached. 
It took nearly two centuries and a half, after the 
first settlement at Jamestown, for the white man to 
take possession of this great river valley and send 
its products to the markets of the world. Not since 
the Nile Valley fed so many nations has so large a 
part of the inhabitants of the world been fed from 
one great river valley. It was maize, this Indian 
corn, that gave strength to the settlers in their 
conquest of the New World; and after this great 
valley was opened it was maize, this same Indian 
corn, at first despised by the Europeans, that made 
the Mississippi Valley the food center of America 
and the granary of the world. 



Food a Factor in Civilization 4j 

How did the people provide against famine before 
Indian corn was discovered? The story as told in 
the following chapter explains how difficult it was 
for the nations of Europe to provide sufficient food 
before this great cereal was given to the civilized 
world. And if this one grain that Columbus found 
on the island of Haiti were suddenly taken from 
the world, famine and pestilence would again stalk 
abroad in the land and the progress of the world 
would come suddenly to a standstill. 



CHAPTER IV 

How THE Discovery of a New Continent 
Affected the World's Food Supply 

Evils due to Insufficient Food, Of all the plagues 
and scourges that have visited the peoples of the- 
world, none have been so fearful and so fatal as 
the great famines, and nothing so places man at the 
mercy of disease as insufficient food. In India when 
the grain supply has been insufficient, disease has 
always been rampant; and since hardly a year 
passes that some sections of that country are not 
visited by a famine, India has come to be looked 
upon as the home of the great plagues of the world. 
China, too, with its poorly cultivated land, its 
dense population, its inferior means of transporta- 
tion, constantly faces the menace of famine and the 
resultant spread of disease. When the potato crop 
failed in Ireland, disease crept in during the period 
of scarcity. Much of the illness of the soldiers in 
the great wars of the world, and of the inhabitants 
who have suffered the ravages of devastating armies, 
has been due to insufficient food. In the Middle 
Ages the pestilence and the plagues were always 
worse when food was scarce. 

It is said that twenty-five per cent of the people 
in the larger cities of the world are barely able 
to secure food, clothing, and shelter sufficient to 

44 



A New Continent and the World's Food Supply 45 

protect them from actual want. Wherever man is 
unable to provide the bare necessities of life for 




CopsTight by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Canton, China, where 400,000 people live in river boats. This 
densely peopled land, badly cultivated, with poor trans- 
portation facilities, is in constant danger of famine . 

himself and family we have a breeding ground for 
disease that threatens the whole population, and a 
people ready to entertain any pernicious religious 
or political doctrine that may tend to overturn the 
existing order of things. Therefore any shortage 
of, or any sudden rise in the cost of, food products, 
due either to political or to economic conditions, has a 
tendency to upset the social institutions of the world. 
The Cause of Famines. Two thousand years ago 
all thp races of Europe, except those living along 



46 The Story of Corn 

the coast of the Mediterranean, were composed of 
ignorant and warhke' tribes. When they settled 
in different sections of Europe, built homes, cleared 
the land, and began raising their own foodstuffs, 
they were dependent for their food supply upon 
their own farms or the neighboring forest. The 
products of other countries did not come to them 
as they do to us to-day. There were no steamboats 
or large vessels to carry food from one continent 
to another ; there were no railroads with long trains 
of cars to carry the necessities of life from one sec- 
tion of the country to another. In fact, there were 
few roads over which even horses or oxen could pull 
heavy loads of merchandise. If a town was located 
on the coast or on a navigable river it had some 
advantage, for light sailing vessels could reach it. 
But settlements away from the coast or back from 
the streams were dependent upon their own products. 

Foodstuffs were too bulky and heavy for the 
commerce of the time. Therefore the traders who 
passed from one country to another dealt chiefly 
in the luxuries of the rich or in commodities which 
had a high value. You will recall that the long 
line of camels carrying goods from India and China 
to the European peoples, before Columbus dis- 
covered America, transported only the lighter 
goods, such as spices, perfumery, and fine cloth. 
The great laboring classes were not benefited to 
any great extent by this trade. 

Moreover, each nation as a rule produced only 
one grain, on which the people relied for food. It 



A New Continent and the World's Food Supply 47 

is difficult to-day for us to understand the full 
meaning of this fact, since we have two leading 




Copyright by Underwood & CTnderwood, N. Y, 

A caravan crossing the desert. Two thousand years ago such 
camel trains afforded the chief means of transportation 

cereals, wheat and Indian corn, and if one fails the 
other is produced in sufficient quantities to provide 
against famine. But before America was discovered, 
when the leading crop of a country failed the people 
were without bread; animals, too, suffered, and so the 
meat supply also became exhausted. The means of 
transportation being so poor, bread could not be car- 
ried easily from one nation to another, and famine 
appeared in the land. 

The Famines of the World before America was 
settled. The following table gives the dates of the 
great famines before the lands of a new continent 



48 The Story of Corn, 

were cultivated and before a new cereal was given 
to the world: 

B.C. 1 708-1 701 Egypt and adjoining civilizations. 

B.C. 436 Rome and the country bordering the Medi- 

terranean Sea. 

A.D. 42 Egypt especially; but since Egypt was the 

granary of the world it affected much of the 
civilized world. 

A.D. 262-72 Rome and England were especially affected. 

A.D. 879 A universal famine in Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

Men, women, and children were sold into 
slavery for the price of a day's meal. 

A.D. 1016 Throughout Europe. For the five years follow- 

ing not a country in Europe could be named 
that was not destitute of bread. 

A.D. 1 1 62 Universal famine in Europe, Africa, and Asia. 

Human flesh was eaten, and sometimes sold 
in the markets of Europe. 

A.D. 131 4- 15 All northern Europe and England. This was 
the "great famine" of England; wages re- 
ceived a permanent rise owing to the scarcity 
of labor. 

A.D. 1586-1600 Within this period famines swept over the 
British Isles, India, Russia, and other parts 
of northern Europe. 

In addition to these widespread famines, hardly 
a year passed that some nation was not visited by 
a shortage of food. A poor crop due to excessive 
or insufficient rainfall, or to the ravages of insects, 
would throw the entire community into a destitute 
condition. And the absence of adequate transporta- 
tion facilities made it impossible for the inhabitants 
to import food in sufficient quantities to provide 
against starvation. 



A New Continent mid the World's Food Supply 4g 



ai 




■l 




1 


■k 



L r: r - d & Underwood, N. Y. 

The story of a seven years' famine in Egypt in prehistoric times 

is told on these stones found on an island in the 

Upper Nile River, above Assuan 

The Famines of the World since America was 
settled. In studying the table of famines since 
America was settled, it is important that we notice 



50 The Story of Corn 

especially what countries have been most affected 
and the small areas visited in the more enlightened 
nations. Notice how the more civilized nations 
have finally ceased to be afflicted with this disaster, 
and observe at the same time the few countries that 
are visited to-day. 

1 63 1 India and Asia in general. 

171 1 Austria-Hungary. 

1769-71 India. (10,000,000 starved in Bengal.) 

1775 Cape Verde Islands. 

1781-83 India. (8,000,000 perished.) 

1789 Parts of France. (This was during the French 

Revolution.) 
1790-91 India, the "skull famine." (So many people per- 
ished they could not be buried.) 
I795~97 Parts of England. (This was during the great 

European wars.) 
1846 Ireland. (Due to the failure of the potato and 

wheat crops. Caused the repeal of the "corn 

laws" in England.) 
1870 Persia. 

1873-75 Asia Minor and India. 
"^^^77^ 79, 88, 89 China. 
1891-92 Russia. 

1 899-1901 India. (1,000,000 perished.) 
1911-12 Russia. 

We observe that few famines have visited the 
enUghtened nations since America was settled, 
and even these were of a local nature, and attrib- 
utable, in large measure, to the fierce wars of 
the times. A great famine, such as appeared in 
Europe at the close of the sixteenth century, has 
not returned to scourge the civilized world since 
America was opened up and a new source of food 



A New Continent and the World's Food Supply 51 

supply given to the world. On the other hand, 
observe how destructive have been the famines in 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Primitive cultivation of the soil, China. This plow turns a furrow 
only six inches wide 

India, China, and certain parts of Russia. These 
countries, with their overcrowded population, poor 
transportation facilities, primitive methods of culti- 
vating the soil, and lack of intercourse with rapidly 
developing nations of the world, have remained 
almost as backward as were the nations of Europe 
a thousand years ago; so the evils that came 
to Europe so many centuries ago sttU afflict the 
inhabitants of these unprogressive countries. 

Relation of Commerce to the Food Supply. The 
discovery of America at the close of the fifteenth 
century was an incentive to commercial activity. 
The world wished to know more of this new conti- 
nent, and the spirit of adventure was abroad among 



52 The Story of Corn 

the nations. Larger vessels were built; daring 
seamen were no longer afraid to lose sight of land; 
and idle men in the large cities of Europe caught the 
spirit of adventure and embarked for the New World. 
Commerce was now shifted from the Mediterranean 
Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Stronger vessels were 
needed to sail the seas, and the art of shipbuilding 
became more highly developed. As larger vessels 
were built, heavier cargoes were transported in 
them, and vessels were soon carrying needed foods 
to Europe. Within a short time after Columbus 
discovered America, tropical fruits found in the 
West Indies and South America were sold in the 
streets of London, and a new era in transportation 
had begun. Vessels were now beginning to carry 
food from one country to another; nations came 
closer and closer together, and men became more 
faniiliar with the habits of their fellow beings in 
different parts of the earth. 

As commerce increased, famines sweeping over 
large areas grew less and less frequent, for the sur- 
plus food supply of one people could now be trans- 
ported to the famished districts of other parts of the 
globe. People living away from the coast or the 
navigable rivers saw the necessity of building better 
roads. Stronger vehicles, such as wagons and car- 
riages of various kinds, were built, and the com- 
merce of the world began to reach the interior 
settlements and to draw them closer to the world- 
markets. 

From the discovery of America to the present 



A New Continent and the World's Food Supply 53 

time, trade in the necessities of life has increased 
more and more. To-day a very large part of the 




A Mexican oxcart. With the coming of the crude hut strong oxcart 

the commerce of the world began to reach 

interior settlements 

commerce of the world consists of articles in general 
use, such as wheat, corn, rice, bacon, hams, butter, 
cheese, cotton, wool, iron wares, and leather. By 
comparing the commerce of to-day with that of 
ancient times we can see how the world is becoming 
more united, and the great extent to which each 
section of the globe is dependent upon other sections 
for articles in daily use. 

Why Universal Famines have not occurred 
since 1600. It will be remembered that America 
was discovered in 1492 and that throughout the 



A New Continent and the World's Food Supply 55 

century from 1500 to 1600 the principal nations of 
Europe were exploring this new continent and 
dividing it among themselves. New foods were 
discovered and carried to Europe. The potato 
became an important food, especially in England 
and Ireland. So important did it become in Ireland 
that it is now known as the ''Irish potato.'' More- 
over, the great famines of the latter part of the 
sixteenth century, and the accompanying plagues, 
had considerably reduced the population in those 
countries where the famine was most severe. With 
the opening of the new century Europe began to 
send her surplus population to America; and then 
another food, of far greater importance than the 
potato, was given to the white race, — the corn or 
maize df the Indians. These two new foods, to- 
gether with the great fisheries along the coasts of 
America, increased the food supply of the world. 

The science of agriculture, moreover, now began 
to play an important part. Indian com became the 
leading cereal of America. It was so easily culti- 
vated, and it could be produced in such quantities, 
that the earliest colonists relied on it almost entirely 
for food. With it they could produce hogs and 
cattle in abundance. Therefore bread and meat 
became cheaper than ever before. It is no wonder 
that by the poor of Europe this new world was 
looked upon as the Promised Land. 

The New Continent. Columbus sought a route 
to India, where spices, precious stones, fine fabrics, 
and all the luxiiries of the rich were found, but 



56 The Story of Corn 

instead of reaching India lie discovered a new world. 
Two great continents, heretofore unknown to the 
wisest men of Europe, lay across the ocean route 
to India. Here gold and silver were first found in 
abundance, and for many years the adventurous 
Europeans thought only of these precious metals. 
But in the northern continent, now known as North 
America, there were river valleys more fertile than 
the ancient valleys where great civilizations had 
flourished. When hardy explorers such as Cortes, 
De Soto, Drake, Gosnold, and Cartier were studying 
this new world, little did they realize its vast possi- 
bilities. They could not, of course, see that Indian 
corn and its products would one day become more 
valuable than any other agricultural product to 
the commerce of America. They could not even 
estimate the importance of the great Mississippi 
Valley to the hungry people of Europe. Little did 
they dream that they had found a land more than 
twice the size of Europe, and possessing fertile 
valleys that would become the homes of millions 
of Europeans and their descendants, and supply 
wholesome food for many more millions. 

America gave millions of square miles of rich 
farming lands which were to produce tremendous 
quantities of foodstuff. This in turn created many 
new demands. Larger and swifter-moving vessels 
were needed to transport thousands of people from 
the Old to the New World and to carry back to the 
Old World the abundant yield of the rich valleys 
of the West. 



CHAPTER V 
A New Continent and a New Food 

Interest in the New World. Nearly a hundred 
years passed after Columbus discovered America 
before any European nation succeeded in locating, 
a colony in what is known to-day as the United 
States. The explanation of this delay is to be found 
in the geography of the world at that time and in 
the limited and slow methods of transportation. 
In those days, when it required three months and 
sometimes longer to cross the Atlantic, this new 
world was far removed from the civilization of 
Europe. 

When the news was told in Europe that a new 
continent had been discovered, and that it contained 
all manner of game and large quantities of gold and 
silver, you can imagine the sensation that was 
created. Notwithstanding the difficulty in crossing 
the Atlantic, every nation became intensely inter- 
ested at once. Exploring parties were sent out, some 
to hunt for gold and silver, others to bring back 
furs, and still others, merely to explore the new 
country and to study its peculiar inhabitants. 
Europe soon lost interest in India. The old caravan 
routes declined in importance, and the nations of 
Europe became active in building and fitting out 
vessels that could make the trip across the Atlantic. 

57 



58 The Story of Corn 

The Wealth of the New World. It would be 
interesting to follow the exploring parties from the 
European ports into this remarkable new world. 
Exciting expeditions and thrilling adventures fill the 
period of the first hundred years after its discovery. 
The Spaniard enriching- himself with the abun- 
dance of gold found in the palace of the Aztecs in 
Mexico, and the natives of South America living in 
mountains rich in silver, excited the imagination 
of the explorers to such a degree that they were 
ready to believe any tale, however wild or fanciful. 
And many were the tales that were told — tales^of 
fountains of crystal water, pure and life-giving, that 
would restore youth and make it perpetual; of 
rivers that flowed from ocean to ocean ; of the fabled 
cities of Cibola filled with gold and silver. These 
and many other stories excited the adventurous spirit 
of all the Europeans. Vessel after vessel set out 
for the New World, and during these hundred years 
explorers crossed and recrossed the continent and 
tramped up and down the coast, along the valleys, 
and over the mountains, talking with the Indians 
and studying signs and stories, in their search for 
wealth or for the fabled Fountain of Youth. Spain 
profited most, for there was really an abundance 
of gold and silver very easily obtained in Mexico 
and South America. Therefore Spanish adventurers 
confined their explorations to this section of the 
New World. 

As these adventurers and wealth seekers told 
their wonderful stories to an astonished world, they 



A New Continent and a New Food 



59 



thought Httle of the peculiar grain that the Indians 
gave them to eat when they were hungry. Little 




An A ztec calendar carved on stone. This calendar doubtless 
governed the time of planting and harvesting of maize 

did they dream at that time that the little green 
blades of maize, as they pushed up through the 
rough and poorly cultivated soil, had the power to 
draw from the darkness of the earth beneath more 



6o The Story of Corn 

wealth than could be dug from all the mines, and 
that it had more health-giving properties than all the 
fabled cities or Fountains of Youth. For the time, 
they thought little of this new food and would eat 
it only when they were in a famished condition. 

How America was divided among the Europeans. 
The spirit of adventure was abroad. It was natural, 
therefore, that the ownership of this new continent 
should become in time an important question. 
When this question came to be decided the claim 
of each nation was made to rest largely upon the 
priority of discovery. Spain discovered and explored 
what is now the West Indies, Florida, Louisiana, 
Texas, and Mexico. Therefore this territory was 
claimed by the Spaniards, and it was here that the 
Spaniards settled. English seamen, under the Cabots 
and others, discovered and explored the strip along 
the Atlantic coast from Florida to the St. Lawrence. 
Hence the English claimed this part of the New 
World, and it was here that the English settled. 
The French discovered and explored the valley of 
the St. Lawrence, the region of the Great Lakes, 
and a portion of the valley of the Mississippi, and 
it was this territory that the French claimed. Thus 
the first hundred years were spent in exploring or 
obtaining wealth from the New World. The map 
given on the next page shows the sections of the 
continent claimed by the leading nations of Europe. 

The First English Settlement. At the beginning 
of the seventeenth century, England presented many 
difficulties to her laboring population. Europe at 




Longitude West from Greenwich 



Copyright, iqib, by Rand McXally (5^ Company 

North America in 1650 



62 The Story of Corn 

that time was just recovering from a great famine 
that had affected almost every country. Moreover, 
Europe was soon to be convulsed by a continental 
war destined to last for nearly half a century, and 
war falls heaviest on the laboring man who receives 
scanty wages and enjoys few luxuries. There was a 
great demand for wool in England to supply the 
factories, and farming land was giving way to 
pasture land. As a result, vast areas of tilled land 
were taken out of the hands of the tenant farmers 
and converted into sheep pastures ; peasant farmers 
lost their holdings, while farm laborers were thrown 
out of employment and in many instances knew not 
where to look for work . Political conditions in France 
had driven out of that country many of the leading 
weavers and spinners. In every European country, 
labor conditions were disturbed. Throughout the 
seventeenth century the political conditions affecting 
labor, the many wars that were sweeping over the 
countries, the changes in manner of living, and 
religious intolerance, all contributed to the settlement 
and growth of the American continent. 

The success of the Spaniards had set every country 
wild over the prospects of great wealth to be found 
in this new land. But the English -were free to settle 
only that portion of the new continent along the 
Atlantic coast between the St. Lawrence River and 
Florida, where no gold was to be found. Because 
of this, several commercial companies, seeing the 
unsettled labor conditions in Europe, conceived the 
idea of settling colonies of people along the fertile 



A New Continent and a New Food 



63 



valleys of the coast and deriving a considerable 
revenue from the trade growing out of their prod- 
ucts of the soil, forest, and mountains. With this 
intention the companies obtained large grants of 
land from the king, equipped some small sailing 
vessels, filled them with families, and in 1607 
started them on the first voyage to a country 
three thousand miles from home. One unsuccessful 




From Mace's "Stories of Heroism" 



The ruins of Jamestown as they appeared in 18 ^y. Here in i6oy 
was made the first permanent English settlement in America 

attempt to plant a colony on Roanoke Island had 
been made a quarter of a century before. This time 
the expedition entered the mouth of Chesapeake 
Bay and landed on a little peninsula, now an island, 
a short distance up the bay. On this island was 
founded the Jamestown colony. 

Early Difficulties. This settlement consisted at 
first of about a hundred people. Of this number 
the majority were classed as gentlemen; only twelve 



64 The Story of Corn 

men in the whole company were laborers who knew 
anything at all about tilling the soil or were accus- 
tomed to hard work. It is easy to see, therefore, 
that such a company, locating in a country infested 
with bears, wolves, and hostile Indians, would meet 
with many difficulties. The soil was new to them; 
the climate was different from that to which they 
were accustomed ; they were located in an unhealthy 
region and were without houses in which to live. 
No wonder they did not settle down to orderly 
work, but spent their time looking for gold, rather 
than planting crops. Many died of fever, and 
before the summer was over only about half of those 
who had come over survived, and even these did not 
have enough food to last until harvest should come 
again. However, another vessel came soon, bring- 
ing other colonists, together with supplies, and the 
number was increased to about two hundred. The 
settlers were necessarily slow in adjusting themselves 
to their new surroundings, and they soon began to 
complain against their fate. 

No wonder the little colony in Virginia felt a 
loneliness and a longing for the home folks in 
Europe as the gloomy Atlantic moaned and rolled 
along the coast, and the deep, sighing forest seemingly 
stretched almost to Eternity. Like the ancient 
Hebrews who, in the face of the hardships of the 
wilderness, rebelled against their leader and requested 
him to take them back into slavery rather than 
forward into an unknown future, so the first settlers 
in America complained against their lot, and did 



A New Continent and a New Food 65 

little at first to improve their new and strange 
surroundings. They killed the cattle and the sheep, 
exhausted the food supply, and then begged for per- 
mission to go back to England. 

How a New Food was given to the World. It 
was the courage of a great leader that saved them. 
Captain John Smith faced the situation and forced 
all to work. Said he, ''Every man that gathereth 
not as much as I do every day, the next day shall 
be set beyond the river and forever banished from 
the fort." All around the settlers was food in 
abundance, but it was so unlike the European food 
that they were slow to adopt it. They saw the grain 
from which this food was made growing around the 
Indian wigwams. They were told that this precious 
grain, when parched and crushed into a fine powder, 
would sustain life longer than any other similar 
amount of food; that the Indians in preparing for 
a long journey filled their belts with it and lived on 
it almost exclusively. They were told, furthermore, 
that a small pinch of it, taken at frequent intervals 
during the day, would give the traveler strength 
and endurance either to make long journeys or to 
undergo great hardships. 

John Smith had gone among the Indians and 
learned from them how to use this new grain, and 
when the supplies sent over from England were 
exhausted. Smith and his men fell back as a last 
resort on this Indian food. Every man was imme- 
diately given an acre of ground and instructed to 
''set corn" in it. In the meantime the settlers 



66 The Story of Corn 

traded with the Indians, and thereby kept them- 
selves suppUed with food until their crops could be 
harvested. In this way they were saved from 
starvation. The early history of America contains 
many descriptions of the cultivation of corn, and 
many Indian stories of its wonderful value. The 
feast of the new corn, which occurred during the 
harvest moon, was the great thanksgiving holiday 
of the Indians, and for several days the savages 
gave themselves up to unrestrained revelry, and 
great rejoicings for the kindness of the Great Spirit 
in sending the grain. The white men at Jamestown 
learned to appreciate the great value of this new 
food. It was so easily cultivated that the colonists 
soon had food in plenty, and from those early days 
to the present time the people of Jamestown and 
their descendants have never been close to a great, 
famine. 

How the Pilgrim Colony was saved. You will 
recall that the next English settlement was made 
at Plymouth. This little party of settlers landed 
December 21, 1620. Although ^ it was winter, the 
men began immediately to chop down trees to build 
a great log storehouse. Then they began building 
homes. The first winter in the cold northland was 
the saddest the Pilgrims had ever known. Before 
the warm spring days came one half of the little 
band had perished, among them their governor. 
In that dreadful winter the Pilgrims bought ''eight 
hogsheads of corn and beans" from their Indian 
neighbors, and when spring arrived a friendly Indian 



A New Continent and a New Food 6y 

named Squanto taught them how to plant the new 
grain. He showed them how to fertiHze it by 




Plymouth Harbor^ where the Pilgrims landed December, 1620 

putting dead fish into the hills, how to hoe the 
plant, and how to pound the ears into meal. The 
new plant grew in the cold northland as well as 
in the river valleys of the warm southland, and 
when the first summer was over and the Pilgrims 
had gathered their first harvest, there was food 
in plenty. The colonists, therefore, decided that 
a time for rejoicing and thanksgiving had come to 
them, too. So, inviting the friendly Indians who 
had done so much for them, for three days they 
rejoiced and gave thanks. This was the beginning 
of our custom of having a day of thanksgiving each 
year. Thus it came to pass that a new continent 
gave fertile land and homes to the people of an over- 
crowded nation, and a new food of great value to 
those who before they came to America had faced 
starvation in Europe. 



68 The Story of Corn 

How the First Settlers depended upon Corn. 

The first settlers were no doubt surprised to find 
that this new grain, so easily cultivated along the 
coast, would yield so abundantly. The colonists 
at Jamestown first tried to cultivate wheat, but for 
many years met with little success. In fact, a new 
variety had to be developed suitable to the soil 
and climate of the New World, and it required a 
number of years to produce such a variety. In the 
meantime the settlers had to study the new grain 
that the Indians used for food. Of course the 
bread made from it was not so pleasing at first 
as that made from the grain of the old country, 
but it was wholesome and really not unpleasant. 
Moreover, the settlers found it very easy to raise 
this new grain. One man, with little or no assistance, 
could produce enough to support himself and his 
family and still have a surplus. Having his bread 
thus easily provided, he could go into the forest 
and with his rifle secure animal food in abundance, 
at the same time obtaining skins for clothing. 
Hides, tobacco, and the surplus corn were bringing 
great prosperity to the colonists. The chief source 
of their wealth, however, was this new grain that 
they had found growing around the wigwams. So 
important was it that it soon became one of the 
leading articles of trade. Taxes, marriage licenses, 
rents, and other debts were paid in it, since little 
money was in circulation among the early colonists. 
The one important fact to remember in connection 
with the first settlements is that the wealth of the 



A New Continent and a New Food 6g 

New World was locked up in the soil. Spain thought 
it was in the gold and silver, and France thought it 
was in the fisheries and furs ; but the English, after 
facing starvation, turned to the soil for support, 
and they discovered after many hardships that the 
soil of the New World was rich enough to support 
the hungry hordes of Europe. The first settlers, 
therefore, became farmers, and their success and 
continued prosperity brought over thousands from 
Europe until settlements were made along the coast 
from Maine to Georgia. 

Two Stories. A writer gives this account of the 
importance of corn to the early colonists: ''It is 
common to see men demand and have grants of 
land who have no substance to fix themselves 
further than cash for the fees of taking up land; a 
gun, some powder and shot, a few tools and a 
plough; they maintain themselves the first year, 
like Indians, with their guns and nets; and after- 
wards by the same means with the assistance of the 
lands ; the labour of their farms they perform them- 
selves, even to being their own carpenters and 
smiths; by this means, people who may be said to 
have no fortunes are enabled to live, and in a few 
years to maintain themselves and families comfort- 
ably. . . . They fix upon the spot where they 
intend to build their homes, and before they begin 
it, get ready a field for an orchard, planting it 
immediately with apples chiefiy, and some pears, 
cherries, and peaches. This they secure by an 
inclosure. Then they plant a piece for a garden; 



yo The Story of Corn 

and as soon as these works are done, they begin the 
house. ... As soon as this work is over, which 
may be a month or six weeks, the settler falls to 
work on a field of corn, doing all the labor of it, 
and, from not being able to buy horses, pays a 
neighbor for the ploughing of it. . . . It is sur- 
prising with how small sum of money they will 
venture upon the cruise of settling; and it proves at 
the first mention how population must increase in a 
country where there are such means of a poor man's 
supporting his family; and, in which, the larger the 
family, the easier the undertaking.'' 

The second story is told by Thomas Ash, a clerk 
on board his Majesty's ship Richmond, who was 
sent to Carolina in 1682. Speaking of the colonists 
he said : ' ' Their Gardens begin to be supplied with 
such European Plants and Herbs as are necessary 
for the Kitchen, viz. : Potatoes, Lettice, Coleworts 
[cabbage]. Parsnip, Turnip, Carrot and Reddish: 
Their Gardens also begin to be beautiful and adorned 
with such Herbs and Flowers which to the Smell or 
Eye are pleasing and agreeable, viz. : The Rose, 
Tulip, Carnation and Lilly, etc. Their Provision 
which grows in the Field is chiefly Indian Corn, 
which produces a vast Increase, yearly, yielding Two 
plentiful Harvests, of which they make wholesome 
Bread, and good Bisket, which gives a strong, sound, 
and nourishing Diet; with Milk I have eaten it 
dress'd various ways: Of the juice of the Corn, 
when green, the Spaniards with Chocolet, aroma- 
tiz'd with Spices, make a rare Drink, of an excellent 



A New Continent and a New Food 



71 



Delicacy. I have seen the EngHsh amongst the 
Caribbes roast the green Ear on the Coals, and eat 
it with a great deal of 
Pleasure: The Indians in 
Carolina parch the ripe 
Corn, then pound it to a 
Powder, putting it in a 
Leathern Bag: When 
they use it, they take a 
little quantity of the Pow- 
der in the Palms of their 
Hands, Mixing it with 
Water, and sup it off: 
with this they will travel 
several days. In short, 
it's a Grain of General 
Use to Man and Beast, 
many thousands of both 
kinds in the West Indies 
having from it the greater 
part of their Subsistence. 
The American Physicians 
observe that it breeds 
good Blood, removes and 
opens Oppellations. At 
Carolina they have lately 
invented a way of makeing with it good sound 
Beer; but it's strong and heady: By Maceration, 
when duly fermented, a strong Spirit like Brandy 
may be drawn off from it, by the help of an 
Alembick/' 




Indian corn 



72 The Story of Corn 

Importance of Corn in the History of America. 

It is quite probable that no other product of the soil 
has been of such tremendous value to any people 
as this new cereal was to the first settlers of America. 
It saved them during the first starving times and 
made them exceedingly prosperous. It was so 
easily produced and the yield so abundant that our 
first colonists were soon in better condition than 
their friends and relatives in Europe. It was the 
J^asis of the wealth of the country; and since it 
flourished in every section, every planter had 
plenty and a surplus. Men paid their debts with 
it and exchanged it for the luxuries of Europe. 
Cattle and hogs were easily fed in the forests 
and meadows for a large part of the year, but the 
abundant corn supply greatly aided the planter in 
fattening them for the market. In this way corn 
indirectly contributed again to the wealth of the 
colonists, since the hides, beef, and pork formed 
a considerable part of their commerce and found 
a ready market in Europe. 

This new food soon became known in Europe, and 
from that time famines have been growing less and 
less frequent, and corn — together with its indirect 
products such as beef, hides, and pork — has been 
forming a larger and larger part of the commerce 
of the world. Therefore the commerce of the coast, 
the opening up of this vast continent, and the great 
wealth of the whole country have depended in large 
measure upon this new grain that the Indians gave 
to the first settlers. 



A New Continent and a New Food 7j 

Our Gold. *'Drop a grain of California gold into 
the ground, and there it will lie unchanged until the 
end of time, the clods on which it falls not more dead 
and lifeless. Drop a grain of our gold, of our blessed 
gold, into the ground and lo! a mystery. In a few 
days it softens, it swells, it shoots upwards; it is a 
living thing. It is yellow itself, but it sends up a 
delicate spire, which comes peeping, emerald green, 
through the soil; it expands to a vigorous stalk; 
revels in the air and sunshine; arrays itself more 
glorious than Solomon in its verdant skeins of 
vegetable floss, displays its dancing tassels, sur- 
charged with fertilizing dust, and at last ripens into 
two or three magnificent batons, each of which is 
studded with a hundred grains of gold, every one 
possessing the same wonderful properties as the 
parent grain.'' ^ 

1 Edward Everett. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Lure of the Land 

Land Ownership. There is nothing so essential 
to Hfe and the welfare of a people as fertile lands. 
From the beginning of history until the present time 
the great wars of the world have been for the most 
part contests for rich lands; hence the most im- 
portant event in history since the beginning of the 
Christian era was the discovery of America. 

If we examine into the causes of the decline of 
the great nations of the past we find in almost every 
instance that the majority of the people ceased to 
have a share, or an opportunity to share, in the 
land of the country. All the land became divided 
into large estates owned by a wealthy and privileged 
class, and those who tilled the soil became slaves, 
or peasants whose lot was as hard as that of slaves. 
When such a condition prevails the land declines in 
productivity, the food supply is affected, and the 
nation's strength is greatly impaired. 

When the first settlements were made in America 
the bulk of the land of England and of other Euro- 
pean nations had passed from the hands of the 
people into great estates, owned and controlled by 
a comparative few. In England all the land was 
owned not only by a very small proportion of the 
people but in such a way that it was usually handed 

74 



The Lure of the Land 



75 



down from father to son and as a rule did not pass 
out of the family. It was practically impossible 



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Sheep grazing in England. Often when wool was dear the fields were 

turned into sheep pastures. Then the tenants, deprived of 

employment, turned eagerly to the free land of America 

for the great laboring class of people, who really 
tilled the soil, ever to own the land they worked. 
Tenants subject to removal by their landlords 
cannot be said to be entirely free, for the landlord 
could turn his fields into sheep pastures or make 
any changes he desired, and throw the tenant out of 
employment. Since their occupations were not 
always certain, and since it was frequently the case 
that the food supply of this overcrowded country 
was too small for the needs of the people, this class 
of tenant farmers was dependent in many instances 
upon the charity of the landlords for the actual 



^6 The Story of Corn 

necessities of life. Even the English government, 
at last roused to pity by such destitute conditions, 
enacted what was known as the ''poor laws,'' 
making it compulsory upon the parishes to distribute 
free food to families in times of great distress. 
Under such conditions the laboring man could not 
attain to real independence and self-respect. 

The Free Lands of America. When the free lands 
of America were finally opened to the world, and 
after the hardships of the first settlers had given 
place to great prosperity due in large measure to 
the corn of the Indians, it was only natural that this 
tenant class of farmers should look to the New 
World. They were eager for land because it would 
produce corn, and each man who had been a tenant 
in Europe and subject to the charity as well as the 
will of the landlord might . now himself become a 
landlord in America. He might be independent. 
His land would produce both wheat and corn, while 
in England the climatic conditions were such that 
only wheat could be produced. Therefore he had 
a much greater opportunity for making a living and 
creating wealth, and he now learned for the first 
time what freedom really was. He had slaved in 
Europe, stinted his family, and taken his political 
and religious faith from his master, the landlord. 
But in this great open New World where food was 
plentiful, and clothing and shelter easily obtained, 
he took orders from no one and felt himself the 
equal of any other man on the whole round world. 

Free public lands that would produce great 



The Lure of the Land TJ 

quantities of foodstuff were the greatest single influ- 
ence in America's development. The most servile of 
men in the Old World when once in the New World 
could feel the force of this universal sense of freedom, 
because he could own his home and have food in 
abundance. It was natural, therefore, that these 
people should rejoice in their freedom and with 
feeling discuss their rights whenever the English 
government began to interfere with them. The 
early history of each colony tells how those pioneers 
would meet under the shade of the trees and there 
hold their courts or assemblies and discuss their 
rights as free Englishmen. It was frequently the 
case that groups of settlers dressed in buckskins 
and hunting shirts, armed with hunting knives and 
flintlock rifles, and feeling no restraint whatever, 
walked into the ^presence of the doughty old 
governor of a colony and threatened him with 
violence, or even defied the whole English govern- 
ment. Think of a mere handful of men defying 
the great English nation! This was characteristic 
of men who for the first time in their lives were 
enjoying real freedom to the fullest extent. 

How America was Settled. These free fertile 
lands called the landless peasants of Europe to our 
country in great numbers. The desire to reach 
America was so great that many poor laborers 
bound themselves to the owners of vessels and 
were sold into servitude for a term of years for 
an amount sufficient to pay their passage. After 
working out their time, these servants secured land 



78 



The Story of Corn 



on the frontier, built homes, cleared small patches, 
planted corn, and becaJlie prosperous men. Vast 



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Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

For more than three hundred years immigrants have been coming to 

America from every nation of the globe, seeking freedom^ 

new homeSf and new opportunities 

hordes of laboring men, leaving the old home ties, 
set out for the New World, where a man was free 
to make a living as he pleased, free to worship as 
he pleased, and free to entertain any political idea he 
pleased. There was no other such country in all 
the world. England and Germany, and later Russia 
and Italy, sent their landless peasants here, while 
all the nations of Europe drove their persecuted 
men and women hither in search of new homes and 



The Lure of the Land 79 

new opportunities. It is well to observe also that 
comparatively few settlers came from Switzerland 
and Holland. These countries have added little to 
our population, because they are countries in which 
the land is held by small proprietors, who own 
their homes and love their country. But the 
nations that chiefly settled America are nations of 
large estates, whose landless peasants endured untold 
hardships in a new country to secure land on which 
to build homes. Having once established their 
homes on land of their own, their allegiance was 
easily transferred to the New World. Most men 
care little for the form of government so long as 
they are free to make a living for their families 
and are able to protect their homes. 

Religious and Political Persecution. However, 
it was not alone the free lands that contributed to 
the growth of the American colonies, although that 
was the greatest single factor in their development. 
You have already learned of the unsettled political 
conditions in Europe. In the seventeenth century 
the governments of Europe frequently took sides in 
the religious discussions and persecuted those who 
did not belong to the same denomination as did the 
ruler of the nation. Men and women were burned 
at the stake for daring to believe differently. More- 
over, though many did not think the king was always 
right, if people dared to criticize the rulers or to advo- 
cate political principles different from those held by 
their sovereigns, they, too, were often persecuted and 
sometimes thrown into jail or burned at the stake. 



8o The Story of Corn 

The religious persecutions in England from 1620 
to 1640 drove more than twenty thousand men and 
women to New England, and during the succeeding 
twenty years as many more were driven to Virginia, 
Maryland, and the Carolinas. So great was the 
exodus that by 1700 there were at least two hun- 
dred sixty thousand Europeans in America seeking 
new lands, greater prosperity, and freedom from 
Old World tyranny. By 1750 there were more than 
a million inhabitants in the New World, among them 
many from England, Germany, Sweden, France, and 
Italy. Settling first in the river valleys along the 
coast, they built their homes, cleared the forests, 
and planted corn, which was to be their chief support 
and the basis of their wealth. 

The Thirteen Colonies prospered on Corn. We 
have already told how and where the first English 
colonies were founded: the one at Jamestown, 
Virginia, the other at Plymouth, Massachusetts. 
Suppose you take your history and learn how each 
of the thirteen early colonies was formed. The one 
at Massachusetts Bay grew to be Massachusetts, 
and from it were formed Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
and New Hampshire. Along the coast we find New 
York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Mary- 
land, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Georgia. Each one had its beginning in the lands 
bordering the sea, along the rivers, or near the bays 
and sounds. Corn was produced in each of these 
colonies, more or less abundantly, and it was easy 
for one to make a living. 



The Lure of the Land 8i 

If we draw a line parallel to the coast, beginning 
at Trenton, New Jersey, crossing the Potomac at 
Washington, the Roanoke at Weldon, the Neuse at 
Smithfield, and passing through Camden and Colum- 
bia, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia, we shall 
cross the rivers at their falls and outline the bound- 
ary of the coastal plain. In this section, between 
the Fall Line and the coast, the first settlements were 
made. Here were to be found the rich river valleys 
that would produce food in abundance. After 
having enough for their own needs the people could 
put the surplus corn into boats and send it to the 
West Indies or to South America, and trade it for 
some of the products of those countries. But between 
the Fall Line and the mountains was a yast area 
far removed from the commerce of the East. This 
was the great back country. It was easy for those 
living on the sounds, bays, and navigable portions 
of the rivers along the coast to exchange their sur- 
plus products, accumulate wealth, and enjoy many 
of the luxuries of Europe. In fact, every great 
and prosperous people up to this time had been 
thus favorably located. In Europe the back country 
suffered most, since the roads were so poor that 
the vehicles of the times could not transport heavy 
merchandise for any great distance, and it was not 
every back settlement in Europe that could produce 
enough food for its own use. In America, however, 
it was different. It is true that we had no roads, 
and commerce between the settlers of the hilly 
country and the towns along the rivers was next to 



The Lure of the Land 8j 

impossible. But in America there was one grain 
that would grow abundantly anywhere. Therefore, 
if men were fleeing from Europe to escape religious 
or political persecution or were tired of economic 
slavery and were seeking- -free lands, whether they 
settled almost up to the arctic circle or within the 
torrid zone, there was one food that gave them 
support and made them independent — the corn of 
the Indians. 

As the colonists of America pushed up streams 
into this back country they planted this new grain 
and it brought forth as abundantly in the piedmont 
sections as in the river valleys of the East. Even 
there it was easy to live, and the free lands, where 
plenty abounded with little labor, drew thousands 
and hundreds of thousands past the settlements 
of the East. Beyond the falls of the rivers they 
passed, turning first one way and then another, 
wherever the land was unoccupied. They cut down 
trees, built homes, and made clearings. A small 
patch of ground planted in corn would support the 
wife and children, and the head of the family was 
free to hunt the wild animals in the forests. 

Life in the wild country was free, open, and with- 
out restraint. There were no roads save the trails 
of the Indian or buffalo. Below the fall line the 
settlers built their homes to face the rivers or the 
sounds and bays. These were their roads, and 
sometimes they were spoken of as *' running roads." 
But, whenever possible, settlers in the back country 
built their homes on or near the old Indian trails. 



84 



The Story of Corn 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

An Indian trail. Many pioneers in the hill country settled on or 

near old Indian trails. Later these trails widened into roadSy 

some of which have determined railroad routes 

along which many passed in their search for new, 
lands. At first these trails were but rough paths 
marked out through the forest, but along them the 
pioneers built many houses, and soon little villages 
sprang up. When the wagon came into use as the 
best means of carrying the produce of the interior 
to market and bringing in return the necessities of 
life, the trails were widened into rough roads. But 
those early settlers in the back country had little 
need for roads. Corn gave them their bread and 



The Lure of the Land 



85 



food for their horses; the rifle gave them meat and 
much of their clothing; and they made their own 
furniture and some of their clothing material. 
Only once or twice a year did they go down to the 
towns along the rivers to buy salt and the few other 
things they needed. 

How the Piedmont Country depended on Com, 
Indian corn was the most valuable crop of the back 
country, too, since it furnished an easily obtain- 
able food for the settlers. Many hogs, after being 
fattened on it, were driven in great numbers to 
markets many miles from the interior. It was not 
an unusual sight to see two or three men, or a man 
and his boys, driving, always toward the East, 




A flock of sheep in the piedmont country. Here the rich pasture 

lands have been utilized for stock raising since the 

days of the earliest settlers 



86 The Story of Corn 

great droves of hogs, fattened on the nuts, acorns, 
and Indian corn of the hills. Their progress was slow 
and the journey to market often required many 
days and sometimes many weeks. Cattle, too, 
were fattened and driven to market in a similar 
way, and even to-day, in the districts farthest 
removed from the railroads, it is a common thing 
to see a driver on horseback, with two or three 
assistants, driving great herds of cattle to market. 
It was frequently the case that a flock of turkeys or 
geese, two or three hundred of them, could also be 
seen passing along the trail on the way to market. 

In those early days, when there were no restric- 
tions placed on the making of whisky, many farmers 
used their corn for that purpose. Hogs could be 
fattened on the mash; and it was not unusual for 
a farmer to carry the whisky in his wagon and drive 
his hogs ahead of him as he journeyed to the town. 
This was one of the ways in which the -corn of the 
interior reached a market in the days when the 
Indian trail was first widened into a road. 

Tobacco, too, which had a ready money value 
in the markets of Europe, was packed in large hogs- 
heads and rolled sometimes many miles to market. 
In order to gain time the farmer would fasten two 
shafts to the hogshead and, hitching his horse to it, 
would drive the load to market, the hogshead rolling 
along on its journey. This was a favorite mode 
of conveyance until long after the railroad came. 

The Growth of the Colonies depended on Corn. 
It would be difficult to find another instance in the 



The Lure of the Land 8y 

history of the world comparable to the growth of 
the English colonies in America. Within a century 
and a half a new civilization was established, possess- 
ing a sense of freedom and prosperity such as the 
world had never before witnessed. The desire for 
homes in the new country was so great that at times 
there were barely enough vessels to convey the 
great numbers of people who sought the freedom of 
the New World, where a new food made living easy 
and free lands nourished a free spirit in the race. 
But settlements soon reached the mountains, and 
still people demanded more free land. Not gold, 
mind you, but land that would produce corn ! 

As the land-owners in America began to prosper 
they desired laborers to work in the fields. They 
knew that in England there were carpenters, black- 
smiths, and field laborers who were falling into 
poverty and even crime for lack of means to earn 
an honest living. Therefore they began to import 
white servants. Agents on the streets of London 
advertised the great advantages to be secured in 
this new world. Thousands of poverty-stricken 
people made contracts with these agents to serve 
on the plantations for a term of years if the planters 
would only pay their passage to America. The term 
of service varied with the age of the servant: if over 
twenty-one years of age, he was to serve four years; 
if under twelve, seven years. For persons between 
twelve and twenty the usual term of service was five 
years. 

In addition to these white servants a few negroes 



88 The Story of Corn 

were brought over to work in the fields, andthis was 
the beginning of negro slaves in English America. 

The Call of the Frontiers. We have seen how the 
nations of Europe settled the land along the coast. 
In time these settlements became flourishing colo- 
nies with stable governments. At the time of the 
Revolutionary War there were thirteen of these 
colonies, each governed in a sense by authorities in 
England. But there was always the back country, 
the frontiers, that was free and open to all. And 
it was the frontiers that kept America free, since 
any man discontented with the government of the 
colonies along the coast could move into this country, 
there to enjoy life with absolutely no restrictions. 
It was the frontier life that supplied a perpetual 
stream of freedom that flowed back continually 
into the older colonies which were growing more 
conservative and more like old England every day. 

The English landlord, who understood thoroughly 
the helpless condition of the peasant tenant class 
of England, could not understand why a peasant 
servant class did not develop in America. The 
reason is to be found in the free lands. A white 
man of energy would not long remain a tenant, for 
there was an abundance of land that he might own 
for the asking where no landlord had jurisdiction. 
Therefore, the frontiers were always being settled 
by a class of people who were building homes 
probably for the first time, and who above all others 
enjoyed the benefits of personal liberty. In England 
there was no land to be had at any price; the 



The Lure of the Land 8g 

wealthy landlords held it all. There was no place 
for the peasant tenant class to go, nothing for them 
to do, but submit to the will of the landlord, or 
emigrate to America. In America the landlord of 
the large estate in the South could not reduce his 
tenants to servitude because they could leave him 
and acquire free lands at any time. This is why 
the free lands on the frontiers have contributed so 
much to the freedom of America. 

It is quite probable, however, that if the colonists 
could not have crossed the mountains they would, 
within a few decades, have become as conservative 
and as aristocratic as England, since there would 
have been little to stimulate and feed the instinct 
for freedom with which every individual is born. 
Moreover, this free spirit, ever springing up on the 
frontiers which no government could reach and no 
officer molest, has been furnishing red blood for our 
American life for three hundred years, and filling 
our nation with the democratic ideas of personal 
liberty and equality of opportunity. 

An endless stream of settlers kept continually 
moving westward into the wild, free lands of the 
frontiers, and still the great primeval forests 
stretched farther in that direction — how far, none 
knew. But the dense and gloomy woodland in 
which roamed all manner of wild beasts and savage 
Indians was ever attractive to the hardy pioneer. 
It was always calling him on, always appealing to 
his adventurous spirit, and always arousing his 
desire for conquest and his sense of freedom. It 



90 



The Story of Corn 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

Through the mountainous regions of Tennessee an endless stream 
of settlers moved toward the wild, free lands of the frontier 

was the same spirit that drove the wandering tribes 
across Europe more than a thousand years before. 
France, England, Spain, and Italy afforded similar 
attractions when the Northmen, Huns, Vandals, 
Goths, and others came out of the north and west 
and took possession of those countries. So in 
America the western wilds were always beckoning 
to the white man, and he was constantly pushing 
thitherward into the unknown. 

The Land beyond the Mountains. By studying 
the map on page 6i you will see that the English 
colonies were hemmed in on the north by the French, 
on the south by the Spaniards. On the west lay the 
Appalachian Mountains. Immigrants were coming 
in such numbers that expansion was absolutely 



The Lure of the Land gi 

necessary, but the settlements could not expand far 
toward the north, for there were the French; neither 
could they expand far toward the south, for there 
were the Spaniards. They had to move westward 
across the mountains. But there were many difficul- 
ties to overcome since the mountains, in those days 
of poor roads, were almost impassable to large 
bodies of settlers. Then, too, beyond them roamed 
many tribes of savage Indians. Therefore, many 
years passed before the Englishman crossed the 
Appalachians and looked into that great territory 
drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries. 

It was in the present state of Virginia that settlers 
first reached the mountains. Virginia was becom- 
ing much like England, the land as a rule being di- 
vided into very large plantations which were handed 
down from father to son as was the case in England. 
A similar land tenure prevailed in most of the 
Southern States. It was different, however, in 
New England. Therefore, it was in the South, and 
especially in Virginia, that the settlers pushed 
farthest west. First went the trapper and hunter, 
seeking game and furs, and his stories of the wild 
country that always stretched farther and farther 
westward attracted the cattle and hog rangers, who 
moved in and built their cabins, cleared the land, 
and began to raise corn. There was something 
especially fascinating about this wild frontier life, 
where a man could live easily without much labor 
and do just as he pleased. No taxes, no officers 
of the law, nothing to molest him save the wild 



92 The Story of Corn 

animals that attracted him thither and the Indians 
who might steal upon him. 

In their movements westward the settlers usually 
followed old Indian trails; these were the first roads. 
There was a natural pass leading from the head- 
waters of the Potomac River across the mountains 
into the Ohio Valley. The Indians had made this 
pass their great highway from the East to the West. 
Along this trail the first settlers passed in attempting 
to reach the new lands beyond the mountains. 
But when that little band of Virginians had crossed 
the mountains and built their little cabin homes in the 
valley of the Ohio, behold! there were the French 
claiming the whole valley. The French had come 
into this region by way of the St. Lawrence, the 
Great Lakes, and the northern tributaries of the 
Ohio, and they at once drove this little band of 
Virginians back across the mountains. 

At last the English colonists had heard the word, 
Halt! In crossing the mountains they had come 
face to face with the French. What would be the 
result ? Would the mountains be the western bound- 
ary line of the English? How much land lay west 
of them? Would it produce corn? In their 
attempts to answer these questions the English 
colonies along the coast not only broke through 
the mountain passes but entered into a great war 
with the French for possession of the greatest corn 
country in the world. 



CHAPTER VII 

Opening the Great Corn Country 

Why the English Settlers were slow to cross the 
Mountains. There were twO' waterways open- 
ing into this great valley beyond the mountains — 
one by way of the Mississippi River from the south, 
and the other by way of the St. Lawrence River and 
the Great Lakes from the north. As we have read 
in a previous chapter, the Spaniards first explored 
the land around the Gulf of Mexico and along the 
lower Mississippi ; but they found no gold, and they 
laid no claim to the country. The French entered 
this region through the second doorway, that is, 
from the north, by way of the St. Lawrence River and 
the Great Lakes. Passing from the lakes to the 
Mississippi, they went down the river in their 
canoes and took possession of the entire Mississippi 
Valley. The English had settled along the Atlantic 
coast, but they claimed all the land to the west 
of their colonies as far as the Pacific Ocean. How- 
ever, the Appalachian Mountains, running parallel 
to the coast, at the most only a few hundred miles 
inland, formed a barrier which the English found 
difficult to pass: At first, only a very few settlers 
from Virginia endured the dangers and hardships 
and crossed over into that wild and exceedingly 
dangerous country beyond the mountains. 

93 



g4 The Story of Corn 

Ancient Highways. Long before the white man 
settled the river valleys of the East, or even before 
this new continent was discovered, the buffalo and 
the Indian had discovered passes through the moun- 
tains. Droves of buffaloes first marked out the 
paths in passing from the Mississippi Valley to the 
Coastal Plain, and the Indians followed them in 
hunting or war expeditions. When the English 
made their homes along the coast these trails were 
clearly marked, and as they were easily followed 
they became our first roads 

The first trail of importance led across the state 
of New York by way of the Hudson and the Mohawk 
rivers. This was perhaps the most important 
Indian trail on the American continent because it 
made a short and easy connection between the 
Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The Mohawk 
Valley, that connects the Great Lakes region with 
the Hudson River, was owned and controlled by 
the Iroquois Indians, however, and all travelers 
crossing from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes 
along this route had to pass through the heart 
of the territory of the most powerful Indians on 
the continent. Hence this trail was not followed 
to any great extent by ttie English until after the 
Revolutionary War. 

Another trail ran from the Delaware River, at 
the present location of Philadelphia, through western 
Pennsylvania, to what is now Pittsburgh. ' A very 
important trail followed the Potomac River to what 
is now Cumberland, Ma^ryland, and thence across the 



opening the Great Corn Country 



95 




Early highways to the West. These trails, first used by the 
IndianSy later were traveled by pioneer settlers 

mountains to the Ohio River to what is now Wheel- 
ing, West Virginia. It was along this trail that the 
first Virginia colonists traveled. The fourth great 
trail led from northeast North Carolina, along the 
ridge near the boundary of the state, across southwest 
Virginia, through Cumberland Gap into Tennessee 
or northward into the blue-grass region of Kentucky. 
Hunters and trappers, if they were cautious, could 
follow these trails very well, but it was extremely 
difficult to move families along them, since provisions 
enough to support them had to be carried and at the 
same time they had to be protected from the Indians. 
We can see, therefore, some of the difficulties the 
English had in taking the Ohio Valley, especially as 
the French were already in actual possession of it. 
The Disputed Territory. Examine the map above 
and trace the Potomac River to its source, and 



g6 The Story of Corn 

thence cross to Wheeling, West Virginia. See how 
near together are the sources of the Potomac and 
the Ohio rivers. Turn to the map on page 82 and 
observe what a vast territory is drained by the Mis- 
sissippi and its tributaries — one of the greatest river 
valleys in the world. If the French could have suc- 
ceeded in keeping the English out of the Ohio Valley, 
the Appalachian Mountains would have formed the 
western boundary of the English colonies. You can 
easily see, then, how very important to Virginia was 
the Ohio Valley, embracing as it did the present 
states of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 

The Virginians did not understand the great 
fertility of this land west of the mountains. They 
only knew that it was .a great river valley, that 
settlers desired more free land, and that the Indians 
living in this valley were already raising much corn 
with very little labor. This was perhaps the most 
prosperous section inhabited by the Indians; the 
fertile river valley and rich prairie lands produced 
so much corn that famine was seldom known even 
under the most primitive method of cultivating the 
soil. Here the Indians were very powerful, 'and here 
they fought longest against the English settlers 
who were now claiming the right to settle this fertile 
prairie country. 

The French were already in possession of the coun- 
try, and in those days rights and claims amounted 
to little unless the nation interested was on the 
ground and in actual possession. France had 
established herself very securely by building forts 



opening the Great Corn Country gy 

in this great valley before the Virginians knew of 
it. Then Virginia acted promptly, and sent young 
George Washington across the mountains to warn 
the French against settling in the Ohio Valley. If 
you wish to get a good description of the difficulties 
of travel across the mountains, and what settlers had 
to endure in attempting to reach the Ohio River, 
read the story of Washington's journey to the Ohio 
and his return. It was in the year 1753 that he made 
that famous journey. At that time, nearly one 
hundred fifty years after the first settlement was 
made at Jamestown, English settlers had made very 
few attempts to find homes beyond the mountains. 

The English take possession of the Land beyond 
the Mountains. It was a far cry back to the starving 
times when John Smith made every man take his 
hoe and go to work, and when the Indians first 
taught the settlers the value of Indian corn. Over a 
million inhabitants were now living in the thirteen 
colonies along the coast, and the settlements had at 
last reached the mountains. Hunters and trappers 
had already visited the wild region and brought back 
wonderful stories of the country and of the amount 
of game to be found there. More farms were needed, 
and English settlers were demanding the free lands 
beyond the mountains. 

The French made it plain to George Washington 
and to Virginia that they considered this great 
valley their own, and that they were ready to fight 
for it. Over this disputed claim Virginia went to 
war with the French. Soon England took part in 



g8 The Story of Corn 

the struggle. The result was a great European war 
in which the mother countries engaged in stubborn 
combat. The French, in taking possession of the 
Ohio Valley, had made friends with the Indians. 
They were interested chiefly in fur trading, and in 
this the Indians could be of great assistance to them. 
When the French and English colonists went to 
war the Indians of the region were the natural allies 
of the French. Hence the war in America was 
called the French and Indian War. Our United 
States histories treat it at length and the details 
are known to every school boy. In this struggle 
France was defeated and England took possession 
not only of the Ohio Valley, but of all the territory 
east of the Mississippi except the strip of land on 
which New Orleans is located. This strip and every- 
thing west of the Mississippi France ceded to Spain. 

After the English were victorious the Indians 
who inhabited the valley were most hostile to all 
English settlers. For this reason the settlers were 
unable to follow the northern trails into the Ohio 
Valley. The only natural highway into this new 
country left for them, then, was the southern trail, 
by way of Cumberland Gap. 

Daniel Boone leads the Way. The United States 
owes much to Daniel Boone, who led the way in- 
to this great country beyond the mountains; for 
he opened up the greatest corn country in all the 
world. During his service in the French and Indian 
War, he had heard of the wonderful beauty and fer- 
tility of the western country, especially the portion 



opening the Great Corn Country 



99 



of it south of the Ohio River. At the close of the 
war, having returned to his North CaroHna home, 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

Ferry at High Bridge over the Kentucky River, Into this 

beautiful and fertile country Daniel Boone blazed 

a way for hundreds of emigrants 

he took a few friends and started in search of that 
promised land *' blessed with the richest of soils and 
the balmiest of climates, with noble forests and 
luxuriant expanses, where thousands of buffaloes 
and other big game browsed.''^ The Indians called 
this beautiful land ''Kentucky,'' and preserved it as 
a hunting ground nominally open to all tribes. 

In 1760 Boone, at the head of a hunting party, 
followed an old Indian trail across western North 

1 H. Addington Bruce in Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road, 



100 The Story of Corn 

Carolina. But it was not until three years later 
that he had his first view of the blue-grass region 
of Kentucky. While looking from a Cumberland 
Mountain peak at a herd of buffaloes grazing below, 
he is reported to have said: 

*'I am richer than the man in the scriptures, who 
owned the catties on a thousand hills. I own the 
wild beasts of more than a thousand valleys.'* 

It was really a hunter's paradise; and Boone was 
a great hunter. On account of the hostility of the 
Indians he did not enter the blue-grass region on 
this trip, but determined to visit Kentucky at some 
future time. Two years later he made another 
attempt to explore this region, but after touching 
the eastern edge of it, and taking many furs in the 
winter's hunt, he found the journey so difficult that 
he returned home. 

Boone was constantly sounding the praise of this 
new country. It fascinated him. He made several 
other visits, each time returning laden with valuable 
furs. On the last of these hunting trips he selected 
a site for a home and returned to get his family and 
others who- might desire to accompany him. On 
September 25, 1773, with his wife and children and 
a number of other families, he started for the blue- 
grass country. As the large caravan passed through 
Cumberland Gap on the old Indian trail it was 
joined by many other emigrants from the valley of 
Virginia. Leading their pack horses and driving 
their cattle before them, they journeyed westward 
to a new home. 



opening the Great Corn Country loi 

But the party was not destined to enter the blue- 
grass region without many hardships. The Indians, 
ever remembering the French and Indian War, were 
planning a general uprising to drive out the English. 
In their first encounter with Boone's party several 
of Boone's men were killed, among them Boone's 
eldest son. Throughout the entire Ohio Valley the 
Indians carried on the bloody war, and it was not^ 
until 1775 that Boone reached the spot he had 
selected for his new home. In the meantime other 
settlers ha^d preceded him into the new country. 
A settlement had been made by James Harrod, in 
1774, several months before Boone's party arrived. 
In the same year, 1774, the Ohio Indians made a 
treaty with Virginia, surrendering all their land south 
of the Ohio River. In the following year the 
Cherokees ceded all of their territory south of the 
Ohio as well as that between the Kentucky and 
Cumberland rivers, known as Transylvania. Less 
than a month after the treaty was made Boone 
founded Boonesboro, which became the headquarters 
of the colony. 

By the indescribable energy, courage, and heroism 
of Daniel Boone the way was finally opened for 
hundreds of emigrants from the seaboard to enter 
the great prairie country. The old Indian trail 
through Cumberland Gap was widened into a road 
known as ''The Wilderness Road," which became 
the main highway between the seaboard and the 
land beyond the mountains. This Kentucky coun- 
try now became a part of the territory of Virginia. 



102 



The Story of Corn 



Fertility of the Western Country. In 1779, when 
the pioneers and settlers were pouring through the 
passes of the mountains into the great plain now 
known as Kentucky, Virginia offered each house- 
holder four hundred acres of laiid at the rate of two 
dollars and a half a hundred acres, on condition 
that a house should be built and corn planted within 
a year. A writer describing this new country said : 

'*A log house is very soon erected. Sometimes 




Photograph by Wm. Baylis 

A typical home of the early settlers in the corn country 

they are built of round logs entirely, covered with 
rived ash shingles, and the interstices stopped with 
clay or lime and sand to* keep out the weather. The 
next object is to open the land for cultivation. 
There is very little underwood in any part of this 
country, so that by cutting up the cane and grubbing 

up the trees you are sure of a corn crop The 

ground will yield from fifty to sixty bushels of corn 
to the acre. The second crop will be more ample; 



opening the Great Corn Country loj 

and as the shade is removed by cutting the timber 
away, a great part of our land will produce from 
seventy to one hundred bushels of corn from 
one acre.^ This extraordinary fertility enables the 
farmer who has but a small capital to increase 
his wealth in a most rapid manner/' 

A hundred bushels of corn to the acre is indeed a 
bountiful yield, and with thousands of buffaloes 
flourishing on grass and wild clover, turkeys so 
numerous that they appeared to be one flock scat- 
tered in the forests, and the woods abounding in 
wild game, it is easy to see that this country would 
attract many settlers from the East. And they 
came. The old Wilderness Road was at times- 
crowded with families seeking new homes in the 
land of abundance. They came chiefly from the 
southern colonies. Virginia, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, and Georgia sent many thousands annu- 
ally. The Indians were still hostile north of the 
Ohio, and many settlers from Pennsylvania and 
Maryland crossed Virginia, took the old Indian 
trail to Cumberland Gap, and either entered Ten- 
nessee or followed the Wilderness Road into the 
blue-grass country. 

Troubles with England. However, before this 
western country was securely settled, the thirteen 
colonies along the coast were having serious trouble 
with the mother couatry. Such prosperity as we 
have described in this new world, where land was 
practically free, food plentiful, and living easy, 
would naturally develop a spirit of freedom, — an 



104 The Story of Corn 

independence of thought not easily controlled by 
England three thousand miles away. Histories tell 
the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 
If you will study these causes you will find that 
complaints of the colonists were directed against 
what they considered violations of their rights as 
free English citizens in America. Many of these 
men who were clamoring for rights had been tenants 
in the old country. Now they were no longer 
tenants, subject to the will of a landlord. The free 
spirit, nourished and cherished in this free, open 
country, soon rebelled; the result was the American 
Revolution, which gave independence to the English 
colonies in America. But while the thirteen colo- 
nies were fighting under George Washington for inde- 
pendence, a band of settlers beyond the mountains 
was pushing across the Ohio River into the prairie 
region and opening up the great corn country. 

George Rogers Clark. It was chiefly through the 
courage of one man, George Rogers Clark, of Virginia, 
that the country which has since become the center 
of the corn production was saved to the United 
States. In the same year that Daniel Boone 
founded Boonesboro, Clark went as surveyor to 
the new Ohio country, and the next year (1775) 
he established his home in Kentucky. The thirteen 
colonies had declared their independence, and the 
old French settlements north of the Ohio incited 
the Indians to rebellion. The western settlements 
had to fight again the French and the Indians who 
still remembered the earlier French and Indian War. 



opening the Great Corn Country 



105 



Clark's iron will, independent spirit, audacious cour- 
age, and magnificent physique soon made him a 
leader among his frontier neighbors. 

While thousands of settlers were now following 
the southern trail through Cumberland Gap and 




The Ohio River at Parkersburg, W. Va. The fertile plain north 

of the Ohio, won through the bravery of George Rogers Clark, 

gave the new nation the greatest corn country in the world 

along the Wilderness Road into the great corn 
country, as yet they had not crossed the Ohio River. 
The fertile prairies were still in the possession of the 
Indians, who were again at war with the Kentucky 
settlers. Arms and ammunition were especially 
needed to drive back the Indians. Clark, soon 
after his arrival, was chosen to go back to Virginia, 
the parent colony, and ask the legislature for these 
supplies. Accompanied by a trusted friend, he set 
out at once. After many hardships, thrilling expe- 
riences, and much delay, they received an order 



io6 The Story of Corn 

for the needed supplies, and set out on the return 
journey, a party of seven men altogether. Cross- 
ing back over the mountains by the same trails 
they had followed to Virginia, they . traveled down 
the Ohio, fighting as they went, and after many 
hardships delivered the ammunition to the settlers. 

How the Corn Country was taken. The new 
colony was hundreds of miles from Virginia, and 
was constantly overrun with the most bloodthirsty 
savages. The settlers were forced to spend much 
of their time defending their forts, attending to the 
wounded, and burying the dead. They could raise 
few crops. Therefore they had to depend for food 
almost entirely on hunting. The danger was so great 
that it was only with the utmost care that they could 
do any work at all. They were fortunate in having 
their small patches of corn to rely upon for some 
food. No other grain would have yielded so abun- 
dantly under such difficulties. In fact, it was the corn 
patches around the forts that saved Boone's colony 
from perishing. In this country also the Indians 
raised great quantities of corn, so Boone's men fre- 
quently seized food from the Indian villages. But 
as the war between England and the colonies 
continued, the situation in Kentucky grew worse, 
until some thought the only way to have peace 
and security from the Indians was to surrender to 
the English and be carried as prisoners to Detroit. 

At this time Clark decided to return again to 
Virginia and ask for troops. The governor promised 
troops if men could be found; but the home state 



opening the Great Corn Country loy 

needed all the men it had, and more. However, 
the government did promise to give three hundred 
acres of land in the acquired territory to each man 
who helped to win it. Clark returned to Kentucky 
with a company of about one hundred fifty men. 
It was decided to cross the Ohio and attack the 
French town of Kaskaskia, lying on the Mississippi 
River in the present state of Illinois. On the even- 
ing of July 4, 1778, the soldiers reached Kaskaskia. 
The appearance of Clark was so unexpected that 
the town surrendered without resistance. Satisfied 
with the assurance that its people would be well 
treated if they submitted to the Virginian govern- 
ment, the little French town became an American 
possession. Clark then sent a small company up 
the river to capture the neighboring town of Cahokia. 
It, too, was surprised, and surrendered without 
resistance. 

These military expeditions in southern Illinois 
were so successful that it was next -decided to march 
across the present state of Illinois and capture Vin- 
cennes, an important stronghold on the Indiana side 
of the Wabash. 

The easy capture of Vincennes .completed the 
conquest of southern Illinois. The French inhabit- 
ants of these towns, who had been on friendly terms 
with the Indians, persuaded them to make peace 
with the white men, or ''Long Knives,'' as Clark's 
soldiers were called. Clark had so impressed the 
Indians with his bravery and his fighting qualities 
that th^y agreed to remain at peace. 



io8 The Story of Corn 

With these victories Kentucky was delivered from 
much of its danger, and the territory north of the 
Ohio was at last free to become a part of the new 
nation as soon as the treaties could be made with 
foreign countries. Twice the settlers had had to 
fight for possession of this great valley. They 
first took it from the French nation and made it 
English territory. English colonists under Clark 
fought the French settlers and the Indians and 
secured to the new nation the greatest river valley 
in the world. In taking possession of it, moreover, 
the pioneers of Boone and Clark discovered that 
this was the greatest corn country in the world, 
producing in some places from fifty to seventy -five 
or even a hundred bushels of corn to the acre, and 
this was done by settlers who had few implements 
and no improved machinery with which to cultivate 
the land. It is easy to see, therefore, that settlers 
in the East would not live as tenants, or even work 
poor land of their own, when by simply crossing the 
mountains they could take up this land at a very 
small cost, and by scratching the surface with a 
piece of crooked iron, used both as a hoe and a plow, 
get fifty bushels of corn to the acre. Such a wonder- 
ful yield with so little labor began at once to draw 
the surplus population from the East and even from 
Europe. Indeed, so great did the stream of immi- 
grants become that the stability of the East at times 
seemed threatened. 

The Geography of the Corn Country. The map 
of the United States shows that the Ohio River rises 



opening the Great Corn Country log 

in western Pennsylvania, and, flowing in a south- 
westerly direction, empties into the Mississippi River 
near the southwestern corner of Kentucky. If we 
now proceed up the Mississippi to the Missouri, 
thence up the Missouri bordering Nebraska and 
through the Dakotas, we have marked out the great 
Northwest. Ohio, on the east, is neither uplaind nor 
lowland, but is in general a plain with an average 
altitude of from eight hundred to nine hundred feet. 
This plain slopes gradually from the Alleghany 
Mountains on the east toward the Mississippi and 
the Great Lakes. A line of low hills running north 
of the middle of Ohio divides the water flow, some 
rivers emptying into Lake Erie and others into the 
Ohio River. Ohio is not a prairie state, since it was 
originally covered with forests of walnut, beech, 
maple, buckeye, chestnut, ash, and hickory. 

Indiana is very much like Ohio, although about 
one eighth of it is strictly prairie. Illinois is the 
great prairie state. Here LaSalle found the open 
meadows ''with rank herbage and deep black soil, 
with shallow valleys and sluggish rivers/' When 
trees appear they grow along the rivers. Crossing 
the Mississippi, we find that Iowa is much like 
Illinois. Westward, the plain rises gradually to the 
highlands of the Rocky Mountains. But west of 
the central portions of Nebraska the rainfall de- 
creases, fields of grain begin to disappear, and 
pasture lands are more abundant. Here the corn 
country ends. A change in climatic conditions 
produces an arid region, which begins in central 



no The Story of Corn 

Nebraska and Kansas and extends westward to the 
mountains. Parts of Missouri, like Iowa, are nearly 
forestless. The border state of Kentucky is much 
like the country to the north of the Ohio. 

Since there were no trees to clear away, the first 
settlers in this prairie country had nothing to do 
but break the ground, plant the corn, and harvest 
tremendous crops. For thousands of years nature 
had been enriching the soil. The Indians, it is said, 
had long ago burned the trees away, and the white 
man found a veritable garden spot, a farmer's 
paradise. Such was the prairie country that was 
soon to become the great granary of the world. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Settling the Corn Country 

Beyond the Appalachians. The Appalachian 
Mountains, extending from Maine to Alabama, for 
nearly two centuries acted as a natural barrier to 
the westward movement of population. 

Even when Washington took command of the 
Revolutionary army, only a small band of home- 
seekers, chiefly hunters and trappers, had crossed 
over into that unknown region west of the Appala- 
chian ranges. A fort stood at the head of the Ohio 



1 "~^ ^^^^^^!f'^|^^^^|^||B|^^H 


^ 


■Bfcjii^^^^^ ""-^ -'^^■s^y^^j^ 




^^JH 



Fori Pitt to-day. In 1776 this little fort at the head of the Ohio 

was the center of one of the three settlements in that vast 

valley now the center of the world^s food supply 



III 



112 The Story of Corn 

River, and around it were built some twenty or 
more log huts, where traders and trappers collected 
furs and prepared them for the markets of the East. 
A small settlement was to be found in Tennessee, 
and another in Kentucky. These were practically 
all the English settlers between the great Appala- 
chian Mountains and the Mississippi River, an area 
larger than the whole country east of the moun- 
tains. When independence was secured and the 
land west of the mountains was wrested from the 
hands of the savages, little did the world foresee 
that the small patches of corn cultivated by the 
first settlers would spread over the whole prairie 
country, making the Northwest the center of the 
world's food supply and transferring the heart of 
the nation from the seacoast to the Upper Missis- 
sippi Valley. 

In those days the East knew less about the West 
than we to-day know about the interior of China. 
But after the war the government needed money. 
Taxes were much talked of, and there was little 
money in the country. Land along the coast was 
costly, food was getting higher and higher, and 
people were often imprisoned for debt. In the 
wild country beyond the mountains, land was prac- 
tically free, and the luxuriant cornfields told of a 
prosperity that was unknown in many sections of 
the East, where the land was often barren and 
rocky and, because the soil was thin, growing less 
and less productive every year. The growing hard- 
ships in the East and the increasing attractions 



Settling the Corn Country 113 

offered by the West were destined to disturb the 
whole economic hfe of the people under the new 
government. But there were many difficulties to 
be overcome before the rich cornfields of the West 
could command the homage of the East and the 
patronage of the world. 

Political Difficulties: (i) States' Rights. The 
period from the close of the Revolutionary War to 
the adoption of the Constitution in 1789 is rightly 
named the ''Critical Period'' of our history. No 
strong central government existed. Each state 
was practically independent, and jealous of its 
rights. Foreign countries had little faith in the 
new nation. English statesmen openly prophesied 
that these thirteen states would soon fall t@ quarrel- 
ing and fighting with one another, that England 
would be called upon again to take possession of 
the government, and that the last estate of this new, 
loosely constructed nation would be worse than the 
first. 

It is well to remember in the first place that all 
the land west of the mountains was claimed by the 
states east of the mountains. For example, Vir- 
ginia claimed Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota. 
Massachusetts claimed western New York and a 
part of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Connecticut and 
New York likewise claimed a part of the latter states. 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia claimed 
all the territory lying south of Virginia and between 
the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. 




THE UNITED STATES 

at the Close of the 
REVOLUTIONARY ^VAR 

Scale of Miles 



Copyright, 1903, by Rand McNally ii Qompani 



Map showing the claims of the thirteen states 



Settling the Corn Country ii^ 

Even before peace had been declared with Eng- 
land a controversy arose between Virginia and the 
states to the north over the possession of the vast 
territory between the Ohio River and the Great 
Lakes. 

While the states were disputing over this western 
territory, Congress was unable to raise taxes or to 
pay the soldiers for their services during the war. 
Washington pleaded with them to go home; but 
they would not disband until they had obtained some 
assurance that they would receive their back pay. 
Seeing no prospects of being paid, they became 
enraged over this seeming disregard of their dues, 
and more than a hundred of them marched into 
Philadelphia, where Congress was sitting. Such a 
boisterous and riotous demonstration was made 
that Congress was frightened, the members fleeing 
across the river into New Jersey. 

(2) Forming the Northwest Territory. This inci- 
dent showed how helpless the new nation was in 
times of distress. There was also much discontent 
otherwise throughout the several states. The little 
colonies west of the mountains in Tennessee and 
Kentucky became dissatisfied, and ^either revolted 
or threatened to revolt from the parent states. The 
government was unable to pay its debts or to keep 
its contracts with foreign countries. A tax was 
levied on food products, though the cost of living 
was already excessively high. To add to this 
trouble at home England was still arrogant and 
hostile toward the new country. 



ii6 The Story of Corn 

In the midst of these difficulties, General Rufus 
Putnam, of Massachusetts, sent to Congress the 
outline of a plan to colonize the region between Lake 
Erie and the Ohio River with veterans of the army, 
who were fitted to protect the border from Indian 
attacks. The land was to be laid out in townships 
six miles square, *'with large reservations for the 
ministry and schools/' Penniless Congress, by 
selling the land to the soldiers at a merely nominal 
price, might obtain an income, and at the same time 
recompense the old soldiers for their services in the 
only substantial way that now seemed practicable. 
Washington greatly favored this scheme. The 
states were willing to give up their claims to the 
western territory; and the old soldiers were glad to 
accept this land in settlement of their claims against 
the government. A series of treaties were made 
with the Indians, and a large number of settlers — 
old soldiers of excellent character whom the war 
had impoverished — were ready to go and take 
possession at once. Thus was laid the foundation 
of what is known in history as the ''Northwest 
Territory.'' 

(3) Government of the Northwest. It became 
necessary at once to provide some kind of govern- 
ment for this region. The act of Congress organ- 
izing the ''Northwest Territory" into a separate 
government is called the Ordinance of 1787. It 
provided that this territory should ultimately be 
divided into states not exceeding five in number, 
any one of which might be admitted into the Union 



Settling the Corn Country ii"/ 

as soon as the population should reach sixty thou- 
sand. In the meantime settlers were to be ''under 
the immediate government of Congress." There 
was to be ' 'unqualified freedom of religious worship," 
public schools were to be established, and slavery 
was to be abolished. Out of this territory were 
formed later the prosperous states of Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, a combined area 
somewhat larger than that of Germany with The 
Netherlands. 

General St. Clair was appointed governor of the 
Northwest Territory; surveys were made; land was 
put up and sold at sixty-six cents an acre, payable 
in certificates of public debt; and settlers came in 
rapidly. The western exodus from Pennsylvania and 
New England now began, and only sixteen years 
elapsed before Ohio, the first of the five states, 
was admitted into the Union. 

The Difficulties in the West. The first great 
difficulty was in reaching the West. The four 
routes that led to this remarkable country, as out- 
lined in the preceding chapter, were (i) the Hudson- 
Mohawk trail, (2) the Pennsylvania trail, from 
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, (3) the Potomac River 
trail, and (4) the trail through Cumberland Gap and 
along the Wilderness Road. The first two were 
the most popular highways after the organization 
of the Northwest Territory. The map on page 95 
shows why Pittsburgh was the favorite gathering 
place for emigrants from the East. After reach- 
ing Pittsburgh they constructed rude boats and 



ii8 



The Story of Corn 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

The Mohawk Valley, New York. The most important of the four 

great natural highways leading through the mountains from 

the seacoast to the Mississippi Valley 

floated down the Ohio. Each year, at the opening 
of spring, after the ice began to bre*ak on the river, 
scarcely a week went by in the early nineties but a 
score of flatboats, keel boats, dugouts, barges, and 
canoes passed down the river. The journey was 
beset with many dangers. The river was obstructed 
with floating trees and snags likely to wreck the 
boats, and Indians lurked along the banks with 
rifles ready to pick off the men without warning. 
The cabins of the boats were built low and lined 
with blankets and feather beds to protect the 
inmates from bullets. 

This new country was undoubtedly rich in natural 
resources. But resources are of little value, beyond 



Settling the Corn Country iig 

supplying the necessities of life, unless a market is 
obtainable. Hence the next great difficulty in the 
way of the prosperity of the West was the lack of a 
market in which the settlers could sell their produce. 
To send it back across the mountains to Philadelphia 
or Baltimore was out of the question — that was a 
difficult journey for men unencumbered. The Mis- 
sissippi River gave a natural outlet; but that was 
controlled by the Spanish. 

The West was growing at a rapid rate. By 1790 
Kentucky and Tennessee had over a hundred 
thousand inhabitants. They had come by way of 
Cumberland Gap, and their only trade routes were 
along the Mississippi and its tributaries. In vain 
did they plead with Congress to make a treaty with 
Spain which would give them the privilege of 
running boats down the Mississippi. Their plea 
was opposed especially by New England, because 
the West was drawing away its population. The 
settlers along the Mississippi and the Ohio were 
roused to fighting pitch when they saw their prod- 
ucts go down the Mississippi only to be confiscated 
by the Spanish, and the owners of the vessels com- 
pelled to walk back home a thousand miles through 
the forest. Their rage was still greater when the 
United States made a treaty with Spain and ignored 
their petition. It was then that the West seriously 
considered separating from the East and joining the 
Spanish provinces, in order that they might have a 
market in which to sell their products. Conditions 
in the West fostered the love of individual liberty, 



120 



The Story of Corn 



and settlers from the old states of Massachusetts or 
Virginia were ready to separate from their parent 




From Mace's "School History" 

Settlers moving west along the Cumberland Road on their way to new 
homes in the fertile blue-grass country of Kentucky and Tennessee 

states and even to go to war with them when 
their rights and liberties were interfered with. 



Settling the Corn Country 121 

In 1794, however, a treaty was made with Spain 
which opened the Mississippi to citizens of the 
United States 'Ho deposit their merchandise and 
effects at the port of New Orleans and to export 
them from thence without paying any other duty, 
than a fair price for the hire of the stores." The 
West could now send its produce to the outside 
world. But within a few years (1800) Spain lost 
her territory west of the river to France, and for a 
time it looked as if America would have to go to 
war with France. 

Spain was a weak nation, and America had nothing 
to fear from her possessing the Mississippi Valley; 
but when France took this territory from Spain a 
real difficulty was presented. France was the most 
powerful nation in the world. President Jefferson 
said: ''There is on the globe one single spot, the 
possessor of which is our national enemy. It is 
New Orleans, through which the produce of three 
eighths of our territory must pass to market, and from 
its fertility it will, ere long, yield more than one half 
of our whole produce and contain more than half 
our inhabitants.'' It is easy now to see that Presi- 
dent Jefferson was right. It was necessary for 
the United States to own the land on both sides of 
the Mississippi. In 1803 this country purchased 
from France the vast territory known as Louisiana, 
in order that the western settlers might have the 
free navigation of the Mississippi. 

The First Settlement in the Corn Country. When 
the public lands north of the Ohio River were taken 



122 The Story of Corn 

from the individual states and turned over to 
Congress, the old soldiers saw early prospects of 
receiving payment for their war services, and the 
nation saw a great revenue to be derived from the 
sale of land. Land companies immediately sprang 
into existence, chief of which was the Ohio Company, 
organized by Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin 
Tupper of Revolutionary fame. The Ohio Company 
had bought a million and a half acres of land, and 
private speculators more than twice as mmch. In 
1788, the year after the organization of the North- 
west Territory, a boatload of New Englanders sent 
out by the Ohio Company drifted down the , Ohio 
River to the mouth of the Muskingum River, and 
landed in the wilderness a short distance up the 
Muskingum, opposite Fort Harmer. Rough boards 
taken from the boat made rude houses for the new 
settlers of this little village of Marietta. Such was 
the beginning of the settlement of the West by 
New England farmers and old soldiers. In the same 
year settlers crossed the Ohio from, Kentucky and, 
being joined by other settlers from the East who had 
floated down the river from Pittsburgh, founded 
Cincinnati, which later became the capital of the 
Northwest Territory. 

This was a wonderful country, and many remark- 
able stories of it were sent back to New England. 
It was referred to as a new land of promise, the 
garden spot of the world, the seat of great natural 
wealth, the center of a great empire. Immigrants 
were offered farms at a few shillings an acre, with 



Settling the Corn Country 123 

free transportation. Such glowing accounts and such 
attractive offers drew large numbers from the East. 

As early as 1788-89 between eight and nine 
hundred boats went down the Ohio past Fort 
Harmer, or Marietta as it was now called, carrying 
as many as twenty thousand people, with about 
seven thousand horses, three thousand cows, nine 
thousand sheep, and six hundred wagons. The 
country far beyond the Mississippi stretched before 
these emigrants with a strange fascination. There 
was now no mountain barrier — nothing but the 
Indians to stop them in their journeys westward. 

The Great Migration Westward. There is no 
period in the * history of America more crowded 
with adventure and thrilling stories than the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century, when the people 
of the seaboard states awoke to the vast possibilities 
of the West. The period of distress which followed 
the Revolution and continued until after the adop- 
tion of the Constitution sent people westward in 
such numbers as threatened to depopulate the states 
along the seaboard. The greatest rush at first 
was into Kentucky and Tennessee. These settlers 
came largely from the states south of the Potomac 
River, and entered the West by way of the old 
Wilderness Road. At the close of the century 
there were 325,000 people in these two states, 
and more than 50,000 in the Northwest Territory. 
In 1800 the government adopted the method of 
selling the Ohio lands on credit. This, coupled 
with the high price of grain, sent thousands along 



124 



The Story of Corn 




The United States at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

showing the distribution of population per square mile 

and the center of population 

the Mohawk Valley and the old Lancaster Road 
to Pittsburgh. Wheat in England was selling for 
$3.40 a bushel, and the inhabitants of Europe were 
facing starvation. These conditions made the 
price of bread in America continue to rise. At 
the same time fabulous stories of corn production 
came to the people along the seaboard from the 
land west of the mountains. The next year (1801) 
wheat went up to $3.50 a bushel in England. War 
was drawing the laborers from the fields of Europe, 
and the world's bread supply was short. Every 
small farmer, whose barren acres were covered with 
mortgages, whose debts pressed heavily upon him, 
or whose roving spirit gave him no peace, felt the 
call of the frontiers. The fertile valleys of the 
West lured him, and he became eager at once to 



Settling the Corn Country 125 

sell his homestead for what it would bring, save 
what he could from the general wreck, and begin 
life anew in the wild, free country of the West. 
''Westward ho!'' was the cry; and so many heeded 
it that at the return of every spring hundreds of 
boats went down the Ohio, loaded with cattle and 
household goods. In 1800 Ohio had 45,365 settlers; 
three years later it became a state. In 18 10 nearly 
a million people had found homes in the great West. 

Still westward went the inhabitants from the 
seaboard; first into Ohio, then into Indiana. In 
18 10 there were only 24,520 inhabitants within the 
latter territory; ten years later there were 147,174. 
And still they moved westward. Through the 
state of Kentucky they came, as well, pouring across 
the Ohio River into Illinois and across the Mississippi 
into Missouri. By 1820 nearly another million had 
been added to the population of the West. At that 
time there were 55,000 settlers in Illinois and 
66,000 in Missouri. At one time during the War of 
181 2 wheat was selling in Europe at four dollars a 
bushel, while the western farmers had corn, espe- 
cially, in abundance, which they were willing to sell 
at ten cents a bushel. In 18 14 the exodus from the 
seaboard became alarming. Old settlers in central 
New York declared they had never seen so many 
teams and sleighs loaded with women, children, and 
household goods. The period from 1800 to 1820 
blocked out the work of expansion which the next 
two decades were occupied in completing. 

Hardships endured. The conditions of trade, 



126 The Story of Corn 

commerce, and agriculture in the East kept growing 
worse. From Europe came the demand for more 
wheat. But wheat was not to be had. During 
the War of 1812 prices rose, and the supply along 
the seaboard was practically exhausted. For the 
first time since those stormy days of the James- 
town colony and the Puritan settlements the poorer 
classes of the East were facing a shortage of food 
and begging bread in the streets of the cities. Wheat 
was selling in New York at a dollar and a half, 
in Europe at four dollars. For the first time since 
the settlement of the seaboard, America was facing 
a distressingly short food supply. Wheat could not 
be relied upon, and it was the corn of America that 
kept the western continent from a great famine. 
No wonder the East was moving toward the West! 
New England and the Middle Atlantic States gave 
up their population in large numbers. The roads 
of New York were thronged winter and spring ''with 
flitting families from the Eastern States.'' Men, 
women, and children walked all the way from Maine 
to the Ohio River, dragging their worldly goods and 
their babies in hand carts. The great exodus came 
in 1 8 14. In this year flour was selling for ten dollars 
a barrel in Boston and Charleston. Despairing of 
better times at home, and lured on by the stories 
which came back from the West, the stream of 
emigrants increased. An almost continuous line of 
wagons, carts, and foot parties filled the highways 
and choked the ferries, so eager were the people to 
enter the great corn country. 



Settling the Corn Country 



127 



It was a strange crowd that passed along the old 
Lancaster Road to Pittsburgh. It was a motley 
crowd, too, drawn from every eastern state and from 
every rank of life. One family from New Jersey, 
consisting of father, mother, and five children, walked 
the rough highway, carrying all their household 
goods in a wheelbarrow. A blacksmith from Rhode 
Island pushed a little cart containing some clothes 




^-' '' •e*<^"T' 



From "The Story of Chicago' 

A typical tavern of the early West 

and two small children, while the nlother, with an 
infant at her breast and seven children beside, 
trudged on behind. Another couple with seven 
children straggled along, the man carrying all their 
property on his back. Five hundred emigrants a 
week passed through Albany in 181 7; and by 1820 
the tide was pouring across the Mississippi into the 
present state of Missouri. All roads westward were 
crowded. Inns and taverns sprang up along the 



128 The Story of Corn 

highways and did a thriving business; for many of 
the settlers were in a prosperous condition. 

The emigrants not only went as individuals and 
by families, but whole villages and townships mi- 
grated together. A train of sixteen wagons from 
Maine, carrying one hundred twenty men, women, 
and children, with their pastor, passed through 
Massachusetts on the way to Indiana to buy a 
township. This company was not unlike that first 
Pilgrim band which had landed on the shore of 
Massachusetts nearly two hundred years before. 

The old buffalo trails leading north and south, east 
and west, through the Blue Grass State were soon 
widened into roads by the foot parties and wagon 
trains that crossed either to the corn country beyond 
the Ohio River or to the cotton country far to the 
southwest. 

Emigration from Europe. There was much dis- 
tress in Europe at the close of the great wars of 1815. 
The eastern states of America had felt some of the 
hardship, but in Europe the suffering was far more 
severe. The fields of wheat and rye had been 
neglected and wasted; in many places the poorer 
people lived on roots, herbs, and nuts, and some 
starved. The fame of the great corn country west 
of the Appalachian Mountains reached these hungry 
Europeans. In the streets of European cities land 
agents told remarkable stories of this wonderful 
country where land was given away, where corn 
was produced in unlimited quantities, where bread 
was so plentiful that not even the dogs suffered 



Settling the Corn Country I2Q 

want. Scarcity of food in Europe, enormous taxes, 
and general depression of trade and commerce sent 
the middle class of England, Ireland, and Germany 
to our shores by the thousands. The argument was 
strong in favor of the New World. This was the 
beginning of that great immigration movement that 
was to add millions of Europeans to our population. 
It is said that thirty thousand foreigners came to 
America in 1817. 

Effect of Migration on the States east of the 
Mountains. The migration from the seaboard was 
great and its effects were very noticeable. Towns 
and cities ceased to grow. The Southern States 
likewise lost heavily in population to the West and 
Southwest. Some of the finest cotton lands in all 
the world were to be found in Alabama, Mississippi, 
and Louisiana. These would produce also an abun- 
dance of corn. After Eli Whitney had invented the 
cotton gin and the textile factory had created the 
demand for the cotton of the South, the migration 
westward became tremendous. This was especially 
noticeable in the two decades from 1800 to 1820. 
Old worn-out lands of the Coastal States were 
abandoned. Small farmers and tenants unable to 
secure land along the seaboard turned toward the 
Southwest. Moreover, there was a strong anti- 
slavery sentiment in the piedmont sections of the 
South. The Quakers and others, true to their con- 
victions, gave up their homes in the South and 
moved into the Northwest. It was said with much 
truth that it seemed as if Virginia and the Carolinas, 



IJO 



The Story of Corn 



Tennessee, and even Kentucky, had agreed to pour 
their citizens into Missouri, lUinois, Indiana, and 
Ohio for the purpose of making the territories states. 
Day after day every ferry on the Ohio and the 
Mississippi was crowded with passing famihes, with 
their household goods, slaves, wagons, carts, and 
carriages. So great was the exodus that North 
Carolina and Virginia took measures to stop it. A 
committee of the General Assembly of Virginia 
made this interesting report: 

* ' How many sad spectacles do her lowlands present 
of wasted and deserted fields, of dwellings abandoned 
by the proprietors, of churches in ruin ! The fathers 
of the land are gone where another outlet to the 
ocean turns their thoughts from the place of their 
nativity and their affections from the country of 
their youth.'' 

The New England States were alarmed and con- 
stantly opposed measures designed for the upbuild- 
ing of the West — ^an attitude which could not fail 
to cause friction. 

The Distribution of Population. The following 
table shows the distribution of population in the 
states west of the mountains. 

Distribution of Population from 1790 to 1820 



State 


1790 


1800 


1810 


1820 


Admitted 
AS State 


Kentucky. . 
Tennessee . 

Ohio 

Indiana . . . 
Illinois . . . . 
Missouri. . . 
Michigan . . 


73,677 
35,691 


220,958 

105,602 

45,653 


406,511 

261,727 

230,760 

24,520 

12,282 

20,845 

4,762 


564,317 
422,823 

581,434 
147,178 

55,211 

66,586 

8,896 


1792 
1796 
1803 
1816 

1818 
1821 

1837 



Settling, the Corn Country iji 

This great movement of the population naturally 
turned the attention of the government toward the 
West — its future and its vast possibilities. The 
trade of the East saw the necessity of connecting 
with the agriculture of the West. The nation was 
beginning to face a great political issue — the provi- 
sion of internal improvements to bring the corn 
country into connection with the markets of the 
East. How those early settlers lived in the West, 
and how the demand for better communication 
developed and was met, will be treated in the 
chapters which follow. 



CHAPTER IX 

Early Life in the Corn Country 

Primitive Methods of tilling the Soil. When 
settlers from the Eastern States began to struggle 
with the Indians for possession of the fertile lands 
beyond the Appalachian Mountains, the only plows 
in use were made of wood, with sometimes a small 
point of iron tied on with rawhide straps. In those 
days agriculture was not considered a science, and 




Courtesy of John Deere Plow Co. 

The plow of the first western settlers was a pointed piece of iron 
fastened to a crooked stick 

it is difficult for us to understand how the first 
tillers of the soil in the East or the West were able 
to make a living with their primitive tools, which 
did little more than scratch the surface of the soil. 
A few settlers had hoes made of iron, but as a rule 
the only tool in use was an ax. The first crops were 
planted and cultivated with no tools but a crooked 
stick, a bent piece of iron, and an ax. It was many 
years after the Pilgrims landed on the Massachusetts 

132 



Early Life in the Corn Country ijj 

coast before those early settlers had a plow. It is 
said that Boston was twelve years old before the 
wooden wedge fitted to a rough beam was used, and 
Ohio was about ready to become a state before the 
first iron plow was patented in America. Settle- 
ments had even reached the Mississippi River, and 
five new states had been carved out of the Northwest 
Territory, before the first adjustable plow was 
invented. Indeed, at that time it was commonly 
believed that an iron plow poisoned the soil and made 
the weeds grow ! 

Although wheat was the most desirable grain for 




Courtesy of John Deere Plow Co. 

A homemade plow. With a primitive tool like this .some Illinois 
pioneers produced eighty bushels of corn to the acre 

bread making, it was difficult to produce in a new 
country if the land had to be cleared of forest. 
When the pioneer reached the new country he built 
his house with the help of an ax and an auger, and 
cleared his land with an ax and a wooden hoe. At 
first he had nothing with which to cut his wheat •" 
when it was ready to harvest. So he pulled it up 
by the roots, threshed it with a fiail, and winnowed 
it with a sheet. Where primitive methods of tilling 



IJ4 T^h^ Story of Corn 

the soil were in use, corn soon became the most 
important crop. Even in half -tilled ground in the 
midst of dead tree stumps and roots, corn yielded an 
abundant crop. In Illinois the new land produced 
in some places eighty bushels to the acre, and in 
Ohio from forty to sixty bushels, whereas wheat 
yielded only from twenty to thirty bushels in the 
best-tilled land. A pioneer Methodist minister of 
Tennessee tells the following story of Indian corn 
in these early days. 

When Corn was King. *'When the country had 
to be redeemed from the Indians and the forests, 
Corn was King. The farmer who had plenty of corn 
had both bread and meat for himself and family. 
Suppose our fathers had had to depend on wheat 
for their bread ! It would have taken them a hun- 
dred years longer to reach the Rockies. Only 
think of the pioneer in the woods depending on wheat 
for bread ! Corn will produce four times as much as 
wheat per acre, and requires only one tenth of the 
seed to seed it down and only one third of the time 
from planting till it can be used for food. Wheat 
must have prepared soil, and be sown in the fall and 
watched and guarded for nine months before it is 
even ready to harvest; whereas a woman can take 
a ' sang hoe ' in April and with a quart of seed plant 
a patch around a cabin and in six weeks she and the 
children can begin to eat roastin' ears; and when it 
gets too hard for that she can parch it. She needs 
to gather only what she uses for the day ; for it will 
stand all winter, well protected by its waterproof 



Early Life in the Corn Country 135 

shuck. Not so with wheat. It must be all gathered 
at once when ripe, and threshed, cleaned, and gar- 
nered. And even then it is hard to get bread out 
of it without a mill. But a small sack of parched 
com with a bit of salt was an ample supply for 
a ten days' hunt or a dash with Jack Sevier after 
thieving Indians. Corn was King when I was a 
boy.'' 

And so it was. Corn was king when those hardy 
pioneers followed Boone into Kentucky and Clark 
into the prairie lands. Corn was king when General 
Putnam sent the first body of old Revolutionary 
soldiers into the Ohio Valley. And it was the power 
of this king of foods that sustained the thousands 
and hundreds of thousands of settlers who deserted 
the seaboard states for the magnificent river valleys 
of the West and Northwest. 

Beginning of Western Civilization. The first men 
to enter this western country were hardy, strong of 
constitution, and . of an adventurous disposition 
Think of a man who would push his worldly goods 
from Maine to Pittsburgh in a wheelbarrow! We 
are simply amazed at the thought of a woman walk- 
ing the same distance, carrying an infant in her 
arms. Yet thousands who made the journey under- 
went such hardships and were sustained by a courage 
and fortitude that made the conquest of the forest 
a comparatively easy task. 

Within the three decades from 1790 to 1820, 
nearly two million people moved into Kentucky. 
Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and 



ij6 The Story of Corn 

Missouri. They came so fast that it was impossible 
to lay out roads; and to provide the conveniences 
of travel and commerce so necessary to the hap- 
piness and prosperity of a new country was out 
of the question. The inhabitants could grow food 
in abundance. In fact, living was so easy that 
a farmer need work but half his time to be able 
to supply an abundance of grain and meat for his 
family. But these pioneers were cut off entirely 
from the older settled sections in the East and 
the South. 

A new country, if it would prosper rapidly, must 
be contiguous to an older community. Countries 
are like individuals in this respect ; there must be a 
constant and easy interchange of ideas, products, 
and population. The Northwest had all the natural 
advantages for the forming of a great empire. It 
was being populated by a race of people who were 
nation makers. But it lacked one essential factor — 
easy communication with the outside world. The 
Appalachian Mountains made it impossible to 
connect the West with the East, and the nearest 
center of trade and culture in the South was New 
Orleans. But this port was fifteen hundred miles 
away, and it was easier for New York or Boston to 
trade with London than for Marietta or Cincinnati, 
Ohio, to trade with New Orleans. 

Early Commerce. Even the roads leading from 
settlement to settlement were nothing more than 
narrow buffalo paths or Indian trails. The old 
military roads from the East to the West were at 



Early Life in the Corn Country 1^7 

first so cut up or so blocked by falling trees that it 
was next to impossible to cross the mountains with 



A buffalo path. In pioneer days buffalo paths and Indian trails 
were the 07ily roads leading from settlement to settlement 

loaded wagons. Notwithstanding these difficulties, 
the early settlers had to import a few things from 
the outside world; they could not live on corn alone. 
Salt was required for their food; iron was necessary 
for their castings; and there was always a demand 
for spices, calicoes, and many household articles. 
But until the treaty with Spain in 1794, the settlers 
could not even go down the Mississippi River to 
trade. 

After 1794 a multitude of rafts, arks, and barges 
floated down the Ohio and the Mississippi to New 
Orleans. It was not so difficult to float the products 
to that city, but it was slow, hard work to push 
the boats upstream from New Orleans to Pittsburgh. 
In fact, the round trip required sometimes twelve 
months. Therefore, it was often more profltable to 
sell the boats in New Orleans for old lumber and 



jj5 The Story of Corn 

walk back home, a distance of about fifteen hundred 
miles, and have their necessary supplies sent from 
Baltimore and Philadelphia by means of pack horses. 

The Pack Horses. Philadelphia saw early the 
importance of trading with these settlers beyond 
the mountains, and a road from that city to Pitts- 
burgh was begun. By 1 784 goods were being carried 
from Philadelphia to Shippensburg, or Hagerstown, 
Maryland, in Conestoga^ wagons, and thence taken 
to Pittsburgh on horseback. Philadelphia was fast 
drawing the trade of the West. A road across 
the mountains was being opened up along the old 
trail, over which settlers were continually traveling. 
Numerous inns and taverns were kept open, and in 
the busy season trains of pack horses were passing 
constantly, carrying hides and furs to the East and 
bringing in return salt and other necessities to the 
West. The important freight carriers in the earlier 
days were these pack horses, which moved in long 
lines, like caravans of camels across the desert. 
They have well been called the first industrial 
agents between the East and the West. 

The earlier settlers collected what furs and pelts 
they could obtain throughout the year for the 
purpose of sending them over the mountains for 
barter. In the autumn the settlers brought together 
their goods and the horses were equipped for the 
journey. Each horse was provided with bell, 
collar, pack, saddle, and bags. These bags were 

iConestoga wagons were large, broad-wheeled wagons, usually covered, for 
travel in soft soil and on prairies. The name is derived from the town Con- 
estoga, Pennsylvania. 



Early Life in the Corn Country 



139 




From "The Story of Chicago" 

Loading the pack horses 



filled with feed for the horses but on the return trip 
were used for salt. The first horse in each group 
was led by a 
driver, and 
each succes- 
sive horse was 
hitched to the 
saddle of the 
one in front. 
When every- 
thing was in 
readiness, the 
long line of 
pack horses 
started from the Ohio across the mountains to 
Shippensburg or Hagerstown, Maryland, where 
they were to meet the wagons from Philadelphia. 
Here the furs were exchanged for salt, iron, and other 
merchandise. Bars of iron were often fastened on 
the backs of the horses and then bent around their 
bodies. Each horse carried in addition to other 
things two bushels of alum salt, which weighed 
eighty-four pounds. They also carried back to the 
land far beyond the mountains small packages of 
tea, chocolate, sugar, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, glass 
beads, hand mirrors, and the lighter iron goods. 
The caravans that went from the markets of the 
East to the great Northwest were not unlike those 
that came from India to Europe in the days when 
Venice and Genoa were carrying on an extensive 
commerce with the Far East. 



140 The Story of Corn 

Effect of this Isolation on the West. Philadelphia 
was over three hundred miles from Pittsburgh, and 
about two hundred fifty miles from the nearest 
settlements in Virginia. In those days of slow 
transportation the West was so far removed from 
the East that the two had little in common, save 
a certain racial kinship, and even this bond had 
little force. Commerce is the great bond that 
unites people, and this bond was slight, indeed, in 
those early days when the corn lands were being 
opened up and pack horses were the only freight 
carriers. 

The settlers sought earnestly for crops that could 
be sold abroad. Grain was too heavy and meat too 
bulky to send across the mountains on horseback. 
The westerners were forced, therefore, to adopt a 
kind of agriculture that would supply not only their 
food but meet also their other needs. As a result 
the bulk of the land was divided into small farms. 
Often, in the early years, the entire family dressed 
in deerskins, and later in sheepskins, but after a while 
flax was cultivated and the wheel and the loom 
were to be found in every home. Their isolation 
from the markets of the world made it necessary for 
the settlers to engage in such manufacturing as would 
supply their most urgent needs. This gave variety 
to their occupations. The vast timber lands fur- 
nished material for houses, rafts, and furniture, and 
by 1798 Pittsburgh was engaged in boat building. 
The household wheel and loom soon gave place to 
the factory. Small patches of cotton were planted 



Early Life in the Corn Country 



141 



in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and by 1809 Cin- 
cinnati had a cotton factory. Mills for grinding 



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^w o/J water mill. To such mills the settlers brought their grain 
to he ground into flour or meal 

grain, sawing lumber, and manufacturing furniture 
were erected, and woolen and hemp mills began to 
supply material for clothing. 

The land produced food in abundance, but neces- 
sity drove a goodly number of the population into 



142 The Story of Corn 

converting the raw material at hand into articles 
suitable for use. Nail factories, glass factories, and 
iron furnaces were built. The West was learning 
from hard experience to become independent of 
the rest of the world. But there was little money 
in the section, and people carried on much of their 
trade by barter. It is said that in the Wabash 
Valley, where the castor-oil bean was very plentiful, 
merchants advertised that they would accept castor 
oil for debts. 

The Source of Wealth. Notwithstanding the 
many industries which sprang up in the West, corn 
became the chief source of the wealth of this coun- 
try. This was the one commodity that had a 
market value. In the first years of the nineteenth 
century the East was sorely in need of the grain 
of the West, as we have already seen, and Europe 
was crying in vain for bread. In Boston and 
Charleston flour rose at one time during the War 
of 181 2 to fourteen dollars a barrel, while the 
grain of the West lay rotting in the fields because 
of the cost of transportation. To move a ton 
of grain from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia cost one 
hundred dollars. The freight on a barrel of flour 
across the country would have been about ten 
dollars. A bushel of salt sent to the West cost two 
doUats and a half, and a hundred pounds of sugar 
about five dollars. Nevertheless, the trade between 
the East and the West did develop and became 
enormous. A merchant class developed in the West, 
and the demand for money became still greater. 



Early Life in the Corn Country I4J 

Much of the land in the Scioto Valley of Ohio was 
owned by settlers from Virginia who had been 
accustomed to raising cattle. The great cost of ship- 
ping grain to the markets of the world caused one 
George Renick, who had a considerable landed 
estate in the Scioto Valley, to fatten a lot of cattle 
in 1804 and drive them across the mountains to 
Baltimore, a distance of nearly three hundred miles. 
He was told that the long drive would either kill 
the cattle or so reduce their flesh that they would 
not be marketable. As he was obliged to have 
money wherewith to procure certain necessities of 
life and to pay his taxes, he tried the experiment. 
With careful treatment the cattle lost less than a 
hundred pounds apiece by the journey, and he 
found a ready market for them. His success 
encouraged others, and . both Philadelphia and 
Baltimore became cattle markets. Fattening cattle 
on the corn of the West for the markets of the 
East became a most important industry. During 
March and April, three- or four-year-old cattle 
were fed heavily on corn. They were then allowed 
to graze all summer; then for five or six months, 
were fed on com to give them solid flesh to stand 
the long journey. This began the following July, 
when the grass along the way would supply the 
cattle with food. The trip of three hundred miles 
across the mountains took fully a month. But at 
last a way had been found to turn the corn of the 
West into money, and for a time much of the com 
raised in the West was used in this way. 



144 



The Story of Corn 



It was easier to drive cattle than hogs to market, 
but it was cheaper to raise the hogs. It took from 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

Cattle in a blue-grass pasture. The rich natural pasture lands of 

the Ohio Valley soon made the raising and fattening of 

cattle for the growing markets of the East 

an important industry 

three to five years to get the cattle ready for market, 
but pigs could be fattened within twelve months. 
It required less skill and labor to handle the hogs 
but it was considerably more difficult to drive them 
such a great distance. It was not unusual to see a 
drove of five thousand hogs or three thousand 
cattle, accompanied by a group of horsemen, on their 
way to Baltimore or Philadelphia. Then, too, 
great droves of horses were raised for the markets 
of the East, and it is said that immediately following 
the War of 1812 more than one hundred thousand 
passed through Cumberland Gap on their way to 
the cotton fields of the South. 

It is said that the practice of cutting corn and 
stacking it in the field was for the convenience of 



Early Life in the Corn Country 145 

the cattle raiser. Then the whole stack, corn and 
all, was fed to the cattle and horses, and the hogs 
were turned in later to eat the scattered grain. 

In all these ways the corn of the West was turned 
into wealth. Indian corn that could be bought in 
the fields for ten cents a bushel was at last bring- 
ing prosperity. It was being converted into cattle, 
hogs, and horses, and moved on foot to ready 
markets in the East. 

Value of this Trade. This trade increased the 
desire of the eastern cities to open lines of com- 
munication between the East and the West. Phila- 
delphia took the lead in constructing turnpikes, and 
by 1820 a line of wagons was running regularly 
between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. More than 
three thousand wagons, transporting annually more 
than four million dollars worth of merchandise, 
carried on a lively traffic over the old Lancaster 
Road. Four, and sometimes six, horses pulled a 
heavy wagon as it creaked along the old rough roads 
that were still tramped by thousands of emigrants 
going into the corn country. 

In addition to this overland trade thousands of 
boats, rafts, and barges floated down the Ohio and 
the Mississippi, carrying barrels of flour bound for 
New Orleans and for distribution to settlers along the 
way. Corn could not be transported a very great 
distance, since it molded quickly when shipped in 
bulk. Hence flour was carried by boat, and corn 
was converted into animals or whisky. 

Floating Stores. New York, Philadelphia, and 



146 



The Story oj Corn 



Baltimore were making great efforts to reach this 
western country and draw trade to the East. In 




From Mace's "School History" 



A fiathoat on the Ohio, The Ohio and the Mississippi were the most 

important highways in the new West. Thousands of flatboats 

loaded with products floated down them to New Orleans 

the West no spur was needed. There all was bustle 
and hurry. Pittsburgh became the great distribut- 
ing point, and at times several thousand emi- 
grants, together with goods worth several million 
dollars, would collect in the city, waiting for the 
Ohio to rise so that they might go down the river. 
Settlers along the river watched for the boats from 
Pittsburgh to get news from the East and mer- 
chandise from Philadelphia and Baltimore. These 
demands gave rise to a new kind of conveyance. 

A large vessel resembling a dwelling house soon 
appeared on the Ohio. It had counters and shelves 
piled high with *' clothing and handsome furniture 
and kitchenware, china, crockery, shoes, and every 
sort pf article and utensil of use in the household 



Early Life in the Corn Country 14^ 

or in the field/' As this large floating store drifted 
down the Ohio, the owner, whenever it hove in 
sight of a dwelling, would begin to blow his horn. 
The settler would signal him, and when the store 
was made fast to the landing, men, women, and 
children would hurry to the river bank to barter 
pork, flour, and other produce for such goods as 
they needed or were tempted to buy. In this way 
the floating store made its way to Cincinnati and 
Louisville, where the produce was resold to mer- 
chants. The sound of the river horn brought joy 
to the settlers, and floating stores did a thriving 
business. 

The National Turnpike. The wagon lines between 
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were also reaping a 
rich harvest from the trade with the West. New 
York, however, felt the necessity of diverting the 
trade of the Great Lakes from Quebec and Mon- 
treal, and Baltimore began to look with envious 
eyes on the success of Philadelphia. The merchant 
class in the West developed slowly at first, because 
it was so difficult to obtain goods from the East or 
from New Orleans. The only way seemed to be 
overland, and to make this possible good roads were 
an absolute necessity. 

Many plans for uniting the two sections had been 
discussed since the adoption of the Constitution, 
but it was not until Ohio was knocking at the door 
for admission into the Union that Congress took 
definite action. It was in 1802 that Congress 
agreed to spend a part of the net proceeds of the 



148 The Story of Corn 

sale of the public lands of Ohio in building roads, 
some of which were to lie within the state and others 
to join the Ohio River with navigable waters empty- 
ing into the Atlantic. The first great national high- 
way was planned to begin at Cumberland on the 
Maryland side of the Potomac, and, crossing the 
mountains, to touch the Ohio near Wheeling in the 
present state of West Virginia. A large sum of 
money was immediately appropriated, but it was 
not until 181 1 that construction began. In 181 8 
the road was completed to Wheeling. 

This new road gave Baltimore a fine opportunity 
to reach the West. It became the highway for 
cattle and hogs driven from the Ohio Valley, and 
the market for bacon, beef, hides, and lard. The 
great turnpike was soon crowded with wagons carry- 
ing the merchandise of the East to the West, while 
the heavy produce of the West, such as flour, corn, 
and pork, was sent by boat to New Orleans and 
thence around the coast of Florida to Charleston 
and New York. Other roads to connect Baltimore 
and Cumberland, with the expectation of drawing 
much of the western trade from Philadelphia, were 
at once begun. 

But a new era was at hand. The age of steam 
and of canal building was to form new commercial 
ties. A new industry, already begun, was to 
make the corn of the West more valuable to the 
world than was the cotton of the South, and to 
make the northern Mississippi Valley the granary 
of the world. 



CHAPTER X 
Connecting the Corn Country with the World 

The Need of Internal Improvements. During the 
period from 1800 to 1820 over half a miUion people 
moved into Ohio alone, while nearly three hundred 
thousand more crossed the states of Ohio and Ken- 
tucky and found homes in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, 
and Michigan. About three hundred fifty thousand 
more moved into the Southwest, into the present 
states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, mak- 
ing a total of over a million people who in these 
twenty years crossed over from the seaboard to the 
land beyond the mountains. This migration caused 
the settlers to look back across the mountains and 
ask the East to help the West in uniting the two 
sections. 

In 1803, when Ohio became a state, the first to 
be carved out of the Northwest Territory, her repre- 
sentatives became at once active for better means 
of communication between the East and the West. 
In 1806 Kentucky sent Henry Clay to the Senate. 
He was then barely thirty years old, but he at once 
brought the attention of the eastern statesmen to 
the condition and possibilities of the West. Clay 
was the first distinguished man to come from the 
great Mississippi Valley, and the West was extremely 
proud of him. He- had seen the toil and trouble 

149 



^50 



The Story of Corn 



which attended the emigrants from the East on 
their way to the fertile grain fields of the West, and 

when he entered 
Congress the cry 
for better means 
of communica- 
tion was growing 
louder and more 
insistent. Some 
talked of great 
turnpikes, many 
discussed the 
need for canals, 
from which Eng- 
land had profited 
so much, and still 
others proposed 
river and harbor 
improvements. 
It seemed as if 




After a painting by Henry Inman 

Henry Clay^ the first distinguished man 

sent from the Mississippi Valley 

to the United States Senate 



everybody was anxious to build roads, dig canals, 
and improve the river channels. But how? The 
states along the seaboard argued that it was the 
duty of each state to raise money for its own inter- 
nal improvements ; but the states west of the moun- 
tains wanted Congress to aid them in building roads 
that would connect the East with the West, and to 
help bear such other expenditures as would improve 
trade between the states. 

Political Difficulties. Henry Clay was the cham- 
pion of this policy in the Senate. In those days 



Connecting the Corn Country with the World iji 

most statesmen disapproved of Congress spending 
any money on internal improvements, on the ground 
that such a pohcy would lead to unjust discrimina- 
tion. It was argued that if the government should 
begin to make these improvements for the benefit of 
the several states, it would favor those states that 
had the greatest power in Congress and that the 
practice might lead to the union of two or more 
sections for mutual advantage against other sections. 
Therefore, the policy of internal improvements did 
not at first make much headway in Congress. The 
West for the time was helpless, unable to connect 
with the great outside world. At this time a good 
turnpike across the mountains, or the improvement 
of the river channels, would have done much to 
improve conditions. But it was argued that the 
national government could not constitutionally 
appropriate money for public improvements, such 
as building roads, digging canals, and improving 
the rivers and harbors. In the meantime the West, 
cut off from the markets of the world, continued to 
fatten its cattle, hogs, and horses on its corn and 
drive them three hundred miles to market, while 
grain rotted in the field. Henry Clay, however, 
contended that the national government did have 
authority to make internal improvements. When 
he saw that Congress would not come to the aid of 
the West he predicted that the nation would soon 
be divided into three sections, the North, the South, 
and the West; and that each would eventually 
become independent of the others. 



^52 



The Story oj Corn 



The great part that the grain fields were to play 
in the prosperity of the West was to be brought 
about not by national aid, but by the genius and 
skill of one man. Human ingenuity is greater than 
geographical barriers, and human skill was at that 
time already giving to the world a series of inventions 
destined to free the pent-up energy of the corn 
country. The first of these was the steamboat. And 
what could be more proper than a brief study of 

the man who 
made it possible 
for the products 
of the great corn 
country to reach 
the outside 
world? 

Robert Fulton. 
The inventor of 
the steamboat, 
Robert Fulton, 
was born in Little 
Britain, Lan- 
caster County, 
Pennsylvania, in 
1765. His father 
died while he was 
quite young and, 
the family being 
poor, Robert was 
able to acquire only the rudiments of an education 
in school. His peculiar genius manifested itself at 




After a painting by Benjamin West 

Robert Fulton^ builder of the first A merican 

steamboat. His invention resulted in 

changing the commercial habits of 

man and the policy of nations 



Connecting the Corn Country with the World ijj 

a very early age, and he spent his hours of recrea- 
tion in the shop of a mechanic or in the use of his 
pencil, for he was both mechanic and artist. When 
he became of age, in 1786, he purchased with his 
savings a small farm in Washington County, Penn- 
sylvania, where he settled his widowed mother while 
he went to England to study art. In 1793 he con- 
ceived the idea of propelling vessels by steam, but 
it was not until seven years later that he turned his 
attention seriously to the construction of a steam- 
boat. In the meantime he had become a civil . 
engineer and had published several articles on 
canals. Having obtained patents on certain canal 
improvements, he went to France with the intention 
of introducing them into that country. 

In Paris, in 1801, he met Chancellor Livingston, 
of New York, who had for some time been interested 
in steam navigation. The legislature of New York 
had already given Mr. Livingston the exclusive right 
to navigate steam vessels ^on all the waters within 
the jurisdiction of that state. After their meeting 
in Paris, the two men entered into partnership. In 
1803 they built a boat with which they experimented 
on the Seine, but this was not a success and the 
French people took no further interest in it. A few 
years later Fulton left France and decided to try 
a new boat on the Hudson. 

The "Clermont." In the spring of 1807 Fulton's 
first American steamboat, the Clermont, was lowered 
from the shipyard of Charles Brown, on the East 
River. The engine had been made in England, 



1^4 The Story of Corn 

to his order, by James Watt, the inventor of the 
steam engine. In August the boat was completed 
and was ready for trial. It was a success. The first 
trip to Albany is thus described by Fulton himself : 

' ' My steamboat voyage to Albany and back has 
turned out rather more favorably than I had cal- 
culated. The distance from New York to Albany 
is 150 miles. I ran it up in thirty-two hours, and 
down in thirty hours. . . . The morning I left 
New York there were not perhaps twenty persons 
in the city who believed the boat would ever make 
one mile an hour or be of the least utility ; and while 
our men were putting off from the wharf, which was 
crowded with spectators, I heard a number of sar- 
castic remarks. This is the way in which ignorant 
men compliment what they call philosophers and 
projectors. Having employed much time, money, 
and zeal in accomplishing this work, it gives me, as 
it will give you, great pleasure to see it answer my 
expectations. It will give a quick and cheap con- 
veyance to the merchandise on the Mississippi, 
Missouri, and other rivers which are now laying open 
their treasures to the enterprise of our countrymen." 

Soon after this successful voyage the Hudson 
River boat was advertised, and a regular passenger- 
boat service between New York and Albany estab- 
lished. Many who were engaged at that time in 
river navigation in the old way were hostile to 
Fulton's boat, and several attempts were made to 
destroy it. Notwithstanding these hindrances and 
the defects in the machinery, improvements were 



Connecting the Corn Country with the World 155 

made from time to time, and the boat continued to 
run as a packet, always loaded with passengers. 

Steamboats on the Ohio. It was in 181 1 that the 
first steamboat appeared on the Ohio. Nicholas 
J. Roosevelt was authorized by Livingston and 
Fulton to make an investigation of the currents of 
the Ohio and the Mississippi, and if in his opinion 
they were suited to steamboat navigation it was 
agreed to supply the capital for the construction of 
the boat. The report was favorable and Roosevelt 
was commissioned to go to Pittsburgh and build the 
boat. The little Ohio steamer was one hundred six- 
teen feet long and cost about thirty-eight thousand 
dollars. The people along the Ohio were just as 
skeptical as those along the Hudson had been when 
the Clermont started on its maiden trip. Although 
they saw the new boat move downstream, they were 
sure it could not move upstream. The falls at 
Louisville made it necessary for Roosevelt to wait a 
month for the river to rise. Meanwhile he turned 
his boat around and made it go upstream. Even 
then the people doubted. In fact, it looked too 
good to be true, for if the vessel could run upstream 
from New Orleans to Louisville, and from Louisville 
to Pittsburgh, the transportation problem would be 
solved. People thought that the boat, even if it 
could run upstream, would not be able to carry 
much freight, though it might be able to tow other 
boats or barges up the river. 

Why the Steamboat was delayed. Although boats 
were soon making the trip from New Orleans to 



1^6 The Story of Corn 

Louisville and from Louisville to Pittsburgh, business 
did not prosper. Rival companies sprang up, and 
both these and the Fulton company attempted to 
control the navigation of the more important streams. 
Feeling became very bitter. Moreover, Fulton's 
company had secured the exclusive right from the 
state of Louisiana to navigate the waters of that 
state, and this gave rise to another perplexing 
question: Did the state have the right to control 
the navigation of streams that flowed through the 
state? If so, Louisiana had it in her power to injure 
the commerce of the states drained by the Mississippi 
River and its tributaries. Ohio especially became 
alarmed, because all the produce of the Northwest 
was beginning to go down the Mississippi. One of 
the vessels of a rival company was seized by a war- 
rant issued at the request of the Fulton company 
and a long lawsuit followed. It was decided in 1818 
that Louisiana had exceeded her power. But it was 
not until 1824 that the Supreme Court of the United 
States settled the whole dispute by declaring that 
Congress alone had power to regulate commerce 
between the states. This was one of the most im- 
portant cases ever decided, since it opened the way 
for Congress to appropriate money for river improve- 
ment. To-day the rivers running through the states 
are controlled by Congress and not by the states, and 
millions of dollars are spent annually by Congress for 
river improvements. 

After 1824 the steamboat business began to 
develop and many companies were formed to build 



Connecting the Corn Country with the World ijy 

and navigate steamboats. It was in the steam- 
boat business that CorneUus Vanderbilt laid the 
foundation for the great wealth of the Vanderbilt 
family. 

Although every country and every section pros- 
pered greatly by this successful invention, the Mis- 
sissippi Valley was affected probably more than any 
other section of the globe. Its sixteen thousand 
miles of navigable water, extending into every 
section of the great valley, brought out the grain 
to the markets of the world. It is said that by 
1840, when steamers began to make regular trips 
across the ocean, there were over a thousand steam- 
boats on the Mississippi and its tributaries. 

Effect of the Steamboat. When the West was 
first settled and the world was needing its surplus 
food, the fixed policy of the nation was that the 
government had no power or authority to take 
money from the national treasury for roads, canals, 
or any other form of internal improvement. But 
the new invention, the steamboat, so changed the 
commercial habits of man that the policy of the 
nation was changed. The Supreme Court first 
decided that Congress had the right to control 
the navigation of the streams. This right carried 
with it the obligation to make navigation possible; 
therefore. Congress had the authority to spend 
money in improving national waterways. Hence 
it was easy to see that Congress had the right to 
construct waterways, and soon public money was 
expended in building canals. If Congress had the 



158 



The Story of Corn 



power to improve and construct waterways, it had 
the power to improve the harbors along the coast. 




Wing dams built by the government at Gray Cloud Island in the 

Mississippi River. These dams make possible the 

navigation of this part of the river 

Therefore we have coast surveys, Hghthouses, harbor 
improvements, and Hfe-saving stations supported 
by the nation. The appropriation of money for 
internal improvements, once begun, has gone on at 
a rapid pace. When the railroad came, Congress 
gave land and appropriated money for it. National 
parks have also been secured. At present, plans are 
on foot for the construction of an inland waterway 
that was first proposed more than a hundred years 
ago. 

The fear of being shut out from the world deter- 
mined the policy of the first settlers of the West. 



Connecting the Corn Country with the World ijQ 

Their representatives fought in every Congress for 
some recognition by the East of the poUcy of 
internal improvements at national expense. But 
Henry Clay and all the statesmen of the West could 
not accomplish with their eloquence what Fulton 
accomplished with his steamboat. The little boat 
launched on the Ohio River in 1811 was destined to 
do for the Northwest what the cotton gin did for the 
South. It now became possible for the corn country 
to market its produce in the ports of the world. 
From the day that little vessel paddled its way 
down the Ohio, puffing, snorting, frightening alike 
settlers, Indians, and cattle, until the present time, 
the products of the corn country have been impor- 
tant factors in the food supply of the world, and 
have made the Mississippi Valley the ''body of the 
nation*' and the center of the nation's wealth. 

The Mississippi Valley. Let us examine more 
closely the geography of the Mississippi Valley. 
Observe the vast area between the Appalachian 
and the Rocky mountains ! The little streams that 
trickle down the westerly slopes of southwestern New 
York, and the cool waters that come from snow- 
capped peaks in Colorado, more than two thousand 
miles apart, meet in the great ''Father of Waters" 
and together flow down into the Gulf very near the 
torrid zone. This is the most important river valley 
in the world. Embracing, as it does, nearly one half 
the area of the United States or about a million 
and a quarter square miles, it exceeds in extent 
the whole of Europe, exclusive of Russia, Norway, 



i6o The Story of Corn 

Sweden, and Germany. The northern half of the 
valley is the greatest food-producing country in 
the world, and the southern half is a part of the 
great cotton country of the world. Yet geographi- 
cally the two are one. The coming of the steamboat 
united the two sections commercially, since the corn 
of the northern half of the valley found a ready 
market in the South and the cotton of the South 
found many markets in the valley of the Ohio. 

The Mississippi River. The Mississippi River and 
its tributaries are the great arteries of this *'body of 
the nation,'' and during the first half of the nine- 
teenth century were the great highways of trade into 
the corn country. Beginning with the source of 
the Missouri, which lies in the mountains of north- 
western Montana, its waters flow through the north 
temperate zone and pass into the Gulf of Mexico 
after a course of about forty-five hundred miles — 
a distance equal to nearly one fifth of the circum- 
ference of the globe. The Mississippi has about 
two hundred fifty tributaries, which drain an area 
stretching from the state of New York to Idaho, 
and from Canada to the Gulf. This mighty river 
system drains the fields and forests of twenty-five 
states. It is easy to see, therefore, that the appear- 
ance of the steamboat on those waters would make 
a wonderful difference in the life of the people. 

But the navigation of the rivers was beset with 
many difficulties. The Mississippi-Missouri is not 
only the longest river in the world but it is likewise 
the most crooked. The waters of the Mississippi 



Connecting the Corn Country with the World i6i 

alone travel from its source about three thousand 
miles before they reach the Gulf, whereas the air- 




Copyright. 1907, by H, D. Ayer 

A scene along the Mississippi River near its source 
at Lake Itasca 

line distance is only about one thousand three 
hundred miles. No two surveys of the course of the 
river made at different periods have recorded the 
same length. The measurements sometimes vary 
as much as two hundred or three hundred miles. 
This wonderful river has been known to cut across 
the country in a night, shortening its course by 
thirty miles. It has swept around obstructions and 
left its old bed far inland. It has played havoc 



l62 



The Story of Corn 



with boundary lines — land once in Arkansas is to- 
day in Mississippi, and vice versa. It has made and 
unmade towns along its banks. It is said that a 
town in the state of Mississippi used to be three 
mil^s below Vicksburg as the river then ran, but 
to-day it is two miles above Vicksburg as the river 
now runs. It has thrown river towns far inland, and 
villages that once lay on its banks and listened to 
the shrill whistle of the river steamboats have dis- 
appeared, and the mighty river flows over the 
places where once the church bells called the people 




From Mississippi River Commission, U. S. War Dept. 

Levee along the Mississippi. To prevent the flooding of the low 

lands in time of high water the hanks have been 

strengthened by levees of earth and stone 



to worship, and the busy traffic of streets marked 
the industry of a thriving river town. When the 



Connecting the Corn Country with the World 163 

steamboat came it found here about sixteen thousand 
miles of navigable waters, and a steamer plying its 
way from the Gulf to the falls of the Missouri 
covered a distance of over four thousand miles — 
a distance greater than that from New York to 
Constantinople. Steamers could work their way 
into the heart of Tennessee or Kentucky, run far 
inland in all the states north of the Ohio, almost 
touch the Canada line, and find their way to the 
foothills of the Rocky Mountains. No other such 
area in all the world has received so much from 
the hand of nature. 

Such is the wonderful valley and such is the 
mighty river that had witnessed the civilization of 
the mound builders, the rude culture of Hiawatha's 
tribe, and the coming of the buffalo. It was the 
settlers from the East, however, crossing the moun- 
tains by following the trail of the Indian and the 
buffalo, who had the genius to feel the promise of 
this great river basin. The river valleys of the 
world have produced the greatest civilizations, and 
it was from ' the struggle for mastery of this great 
valley that there emerged a new democracy un- 
like anything yet seen,'* and from the beginning 
of that conquest to the present time all impor- 
tant questions of the nation have been solved with* 
reference to this great valley. 

How the Great Valley was unified. It is easy to 
see that steam, once fully established on the Mis- 
sissippi and its tributaries, would bind together the 
corn country and the cotton country, and by 1824 



164 The Story of Corn 

this union had become a fact. In 18 14 the first 
steamboat made a successful trip from New Orleans 
to Louisville. This was the beginning of a new era 
in the West, since passenger travel was greatly- 
facilitated and freight steamers could now ascend 
and descend the river. The passenger rates from 
Pittsburgh to New Orleans, which had been sixty 
dollars, were gradually reduced to about one half 
that amount, and the time required to make the 
trip, from four months to less than one third that 
time. Freight rates were likewise soon reduced 
about one half. In 1819 sixty boats were running 
between New Orleans and Louisville. When the 
Cumberland River was opened, a line of boats was 
established between Nashville, Tennessee, and New 
Orleans. The Missouri and the Platte were opened, 
and boats were soon creeping up to the foothills of 
the Rocky Mountains; the tributaries of the Ohio 
were opened, and steamers were soon puflfing and 
blowing in the very heart of the grain country. 

By 18 1 5 Cincinnati had become a good deal 
of a trade center. Corn, wheat, flour, pork, bacon, 
lard, and whisky, all products of the grain of the 
Northwest, were going down the Mississippi to 
New Orleans and beyond. St. Louis had estab- 
lished communication with Louisville, Cincinnati, 
and New Orleans. The rapid development of 
steamboat traffic was destroying the wagon trade 
between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and drawing 
together the West and the South. 

It was the period from 1820 to 1850 that witnessed 



Connecting the Corn Country with the World 165 

the great development of steamboat traffic of the 
Mississippi Valley. Coal was easily obtained for 
fuel, as there was an abundance of it in the valley. 
By 1826, Cincinnati had become the chief export- 
ing city and the manufacturing center of the West. 
As many as thirty steamers might be seen any 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

A Mississippi River steamer. The steamboat hound together the 
corn country and the cotton country, making of the Missis- 
sippi Valley an empire complete within itself 

day at the docks of this metropolis of the valley. 
Louisville, also, became a great exporting center, con- 
trolling as it did the products of central Tennessee 
and Kentucky that came by way of the Cumberland 
River. In addition to steamboats, thousands of 
rafts, boats, and barges floated down the northern 
tributaries of the Mississippi. Coming together at 
the mouth of the Ohio, numbers of these were lashed 



1 66 The Story of Corn 

together and proceeded down the Mississippi to 
New Orleans. After disposing of the products the 
raftsmen worked their way back home, sometimes 
as deck hands on the steamers that carried the 
merchandise of the world to the great grain country 
of the Northwest. In 1824 three hundred thousand 
barrels of flour went down the Mississippi, and on 
the return trip the boats were loaded with cotton. 
The portion of the South drained by the Mississippi 
was beginning to depend upon the West for food, 
and the West was depending upon the South for 
material for clothing. By 1840 three thousand 
flatboats, in addition to the steamboats, annually 
ascended the Ohio alone, and probably as many more 
went down the Mississippi. Thus it had come to 
pass that the great Mississippi Valley was an empire 
complete within itself. What a change since those 
early pioneering days when pack horses were the 
chief freight carriers between the East and the West ! 



CHAPTER XI 

An Era of Internal Improvements 

Dependence of the West upon the South. If 

you will examine your maps again, you will see that 
New Orleans was the natural market for the grain 
of the entire Mississippi Valley. But grain bound 
for Charleston or New York, the West Indies or 
South America, England or the continent of Europe, 
had to be reloaded at New Orleans. The grain 
country, however, was developing so rapidly and 
commerce was increasing at such an enormous rate 
that New Orleans soon became unable to handle the 
freight. There were not enough warehouses in 
which to store the grain and not enough ocean-going 
vessels to take it away. By 1825 the market was 
overstocked and traders had either to wait in New 
Orleans for prices to rise or else leave their goods 
stored in crowded warehouses where they were 
liable to spoil. Seagoing vessels were unable to 
take the products away fast enough, although flour 
was selling in New York and Charleston at eight 
dollars a barrel while in Cincinnati it was three 
dollars and a half. 

New Orleans was far from the leading markets of 
the world and ocean travel was slow and uncertain, 
since steamboats or steam vessels had not yet taken 
the place of the old sailing vessels. The greater 

167 



1 68 The Story of Corn 

number of the Southern States were raising a suffi- 
cient food supply for their own consumption, and 
there was Uttle demand in the South for the tremen- 
dous grain products of the West. The Northwest 
was near to the markets of the East, yet the products 
of the West were too heavy and bulky to be sent 
overland. Again and again the West looked to 
New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, where the 
demand was great and prices high, but the only 
way the grain could reach these cities was by con- 
verting it into hogs, cattle, and horses, and driving 
them over the mountains. 

As steamboat transportation increased in the 
Mississippi Valley the wagon trade across the moun- 
tains declined. But the great trading centers of the 
East were in need of the cheaper food that could 
be found in practically unlimited quantities in the 
Mississippi Valley. Such a demand was sure to 
find an answer, and did find it in the era of canal 
building which now followed. 

The Era of Canal Building. Turnpikes were 
insufficient. Water transportation was the cheapest, 
and waterways must be made between the East 
and the West. But the great Appalachian Moun- 
tains stood a grim barrier, obstructing turnpike and 
waterway, while grain rotted in the bins of the 
West and people almost starved in the cities of 
Europe. Hence the people of every state were 
talking canals. New York was most fortunate in its 
location, since there was a natural trough extending 
across the state from the Hudson River to the 



An Era of Internal Improvements i6g 

Great Lakes. This is the old Hudson- Mohawk 
route, referred to in another chapter, and through 
this trough it is said the Great Lakes once emptied 
their waters into the ocean. Governor CUnton of 
New York argued that a canal could be dug without 
much difficulty along this natural highway. 

Surveys were made in 1808, and the one prac- 
ticable route that could be opened by canal was 
laid out. On account of the War of 18 12, how- 
ever, the canal was not begun until 181 7. The 
nearest route would have been from the Hudson 
River to Lake Ontario, but this would have made 
necessary another channel around Niagara Falls. 
It was, therefore, decided to build to Lake Erie, a 
distance of two hundred sixty-three miles. In that 
way New York might draw all the trade from the 
Great Lakes region. 

Opening of the Erie Canal. No event in the 
history of America has surpassed in lasting impor- 
tance the completion of the Erie Canal. After 
eight years of persistent labor the *'Big Ditch," 
as it was called, connecting Lake Erie, at Buffalo, 
with the Hudson, at Albany, was finished at a cost 
of about $20,000 a mile, and on June 26, 1825, 
the celebration of the opening began. A line of 
canal boats with the Seneca Chief in front drawn 
by four gray horses started from Lake Erie to 
the river. A bear, two eagles, two fawns, two 
Indian boys, and some fish — all typical of the 
natural products of the West — were carried on this 
trip. As the fleet moved along the canal it was 



lyo The Story of Corn 

saluted with music, the cheering of crowds, and the 
firing of guns. Lake Erie and all the fertile country 
of the Northwest was at last joined with the markets 
of the East. When the line of boats reached Albany 
an escort of gayly decorated steamboats accom- 
panied the fleet down the Hudson to New York, 
where the entire city, together with thirty thousand 
visitors, turned out to welcome it. The Seneca 
Chief had brought a keg of lake water, which Gover- 
nor Clinton with much ceremony poured into the 
ocean, typifying the union of the Great Lakes and 
the Atlantic Ocean. 

The canal, the completion of which was celebrated 
with so much ceremony by the people of New York, 
was in truth little more than a big ditch. It was 
only four feet deep and forty feet wide, and the 
distance from Buffalo to New York was two hundred 
sixty- three miles. Two years before the opening 
of the Erie Canal another canal had been completed 
from the Hudson to Lake Champlain. The opening 
of these two waterways was the beginning of a 
new era in the development of the state of New York 
and especially of New York City. Pent-up trade 
broke loose, and in the year following the opening 
nearly twenty thousand boats and rrits passed West 
Troy. The Erie Canal was a tremendous success 
from the very beginning. The tolls and duties of 
the first year amounted to more than a million 
dollars. 

As section after section of this much-needed 
waterway was completed a mania for internal 



An Era of Internal Improvements iji 

improvements swept over the country, and many 
long-discussed projects began to take shape one by 
one. The Delaware & Hudson Canal was begun 
in July of 1825 and the Delaware & Chesapeake 
Canal was well under way at that time. The 
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was about to be com- 
menced, while plans were on foot to join New Haven 
with Northampton, Providence with Rochester, 
Boston with the Connecticut River, and Long Island 
with Montreal by way of the Connecticut River. 

The Ohio Canal. In the year that New York 
celebrated the opening of the Erie Canal the farmers 
of Ohio became active. They had already seen the 
necessity of connecting the Ohio River with the 
Great Lakes in order that the grain of the interior of 
the state might be sold in the markets of New York. 
The geography of Ohio was favorable to canal 
building. 

The Cuyahoga River, which empties into the 
Great Lakes at Cleveland, and the Scioto and the 
Muskingum, which join the Ohio, traversed at that 
time the most thickly settled sections of the state. 
In 1825 it was decided to connect these rivers with 
a canal, afterwards known as the Ohio Canal. In 
that same year the national government spent 
seventy thousand dollars on the improvement of 
the Ohio River. A canal was also in course of 
construction around the falls at Louisville. This 
was completed in 1830, and two years later the 
Ohio Canal, three hundred nine miles in length, 
was opened. At last the Mississippi Valley was 



ijz The Story of Corn 

connected with New York. Steamboats had already 
appeared on the Great Lakes, and an easy com- 
munication was now opened between New York, 
the metropoHs of the East, and Cincinnati, the 
metropoHs of the West. 

Effect of these Canals on the West. It became 
evident at once that the system of canals connecting 
the waters of the Northwest with the Hudson 
River and the Atlantic Ocean would turn much of 
the commerce of this country into the port of 
New York, thus making the Erie Canal one of the 
great highways of America. The farmers living 
inland took immediate interest in these waterways, 
which were far better than roads and of more 
service to the interior than were the rivers. A 
farmer could build a good strong boat, capable of 
carrying twenty-five tons, for about one hundred 
dollars. Into this he could put his corn, flour, and 
meat, hitch his horse to it, by means of towlines, 
and draw the whole cargo to the leading port of 
the Great Lakes. 

Sometimes the boats were drawn by men, instead 
of horses, walking along the towpath. Sometimes 
they were public carriers and were supplied with 
staterooms and conveniences for travel. On the 
Erie Canal there was considerable passenger travel. 
Here the boats were larger, usually about eighty feet 
long by eleven feet wide, carrying on deck ''a long, 
low house with a flat roof and sloping sides, which 
were pierced by a continuous row of windows 
provided with green blinds and red curtains/' 



An Era of Internal Improvements 



173 



Frequently the number of passengers far exceeded 
the number of berths, and in such cases the men 




From Mace's "School History" 

In 182s the Erie Canal not only furnished cheap and easy means 

for shipping foodstuffs front the West to the East, hut 

was a popular route for travelers 

usually slept on the dining table or on the decks. 
*'When the weather was fine, the travelers gathered 
on the roof, reading, sewing, talking, and playing 
cards, till the helmsman would shout, 'Bridge! 
Bridge!' Then the assembled company would rush 
headlong down the steps and into the cabin, to 
come forth anew when the bridge had been passed." 
The rate of travel was very slow. A boat the size 
of the one described above was usually drawn by 



1^4 'rhe Story of Corn 

three horses, walking one behind the other, at the 
rate of about four miles an hour. 

Slow as this means of commerce was, it meant 
the moving of the products of the West to another 
world market -J— the beginning of a mighty — a 
stupendous — stream of trade, the volume of which 
no one dreamed. 

Effect of these Canals on the East. The cities of 
the East were making vigorous efforts to draw the 
great grain and meat trade from the Northwest. 
As soon as the waterway from New York to the 
Ohio River was completed, the grain of the West 
started for New York. In 1835, three years after 
the opening of the Ohio Canal, eighty-six thousand 
bushels of wheat were towed from the Ohio River 
up the Ohio Canal to Cleveland. Here it was put on 
board steamers and carried to Buffalo, where it was 
reloaded into canal boats and taken to New York. 
In this same year 1,354,995 bushels of wheat and 
96,233 barrels of flour went from the state of Ohio 
to the East. In a short time the Welland Canal 
connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario opened 
other markets along the St. Lawrence for the grain 
of the Northwest. 

The growth of the cities in the East made such 
heavy demands upon the surrounding country that 
the farmers were no longer able to supply the 
necessary foodstuff. Then, too, by 1830, New 
England had no frontiers. The rocky hillsides were 
being deserted for the towns or for the fertile fields 
of the West. The cost of living was growing higher 



An Era of Internal Improvements i^^ 

and higher. But the opening of the canals from 
New York to the Great Lakes and from the Great 
Lakes to the Ohio changed this. The markets of 
the East were being connected with the grain fields 
of the West. No wonder the people of New York 
crowded along the new canal, waving their hats and 
shouting for joy, when the first boats passed by 
carrying grain from the West to the East! No 
wonder the Ohio farmers gathered on the banks of 
the Ohio Canal and poured their produce into the 
queer-shaped boats, hurrahing lustily as the corn 
and meat of the West started for the cities of the 
East! In 1824 corn sold for ten cents and wheat 
for thirty cents a bushel in Ohio, while in New York 
the prices were three or four times those amounts. 
Soon after the opening of these canals, however, the 
prices in Ohio were doubled and quadrupled while in 
New York they fell considerably. 

Thus new routes of trade were opened up, bringing 
the East and the West together. The great corn 
country was at last opened to the markets of the 
East. It is easy now tq^ee how important and how 
necessary the Ohio Valley is to the states along the 
Atlantic Coast. But suppose the French had been 
victorious instead of the English! Suppose the 
Appalachian Mountains had remained the western 
boundary line of the states along the seaboard! 
How vastly different would have been our history! 

Efifect of these Canals on the Mississippi Trade. 
The opening of these canals, however, did not affect 
the corn trade of the Mississippi and the South. 



iy6 The Story of Corn 

Already the corn country had developed so rapidly 
that neither the river commerce nor the markets of 
the South alone could handle the product. More- 
over, the canals were shallow and the boats small. 
They could compete but little with the heavy 
steamers along the rivers. By 1832 Cincinnati had 
become the ''Queen City of the West/' with a 
population of about twenty-five thousand. And its 
growth was due in large measure to the Mississippi 
River trade. Great pork-packing establishments 
were developed, giving to Cincinnati the name 
''Porkopolis.''' When the canals were opened the 
river trade was greater than the trade of the 
whole country in 1790, the year when the West 
was first opened. 

Continued Growth of the Corn Country. The 
invention and development of the steamboat, 
together with the improvement of the streams for 
navigation, had sent the greater part of the produce 
of the grain country into the cotton country. The 
opening of canals connecting the Ohio River with 
New York turned much of the surplus grain from 
the interior to eastern ports, and advertised this 
remarkable western country throughout the Eastern 
States. It was much easier now for settlers to reach 
the free lands of the West. Turnpikes and canals 
had facilitated travel considerably, and a steady 
stream of population flowed westward. Old Indian 
trails had been widened into roads, and the Erie 
Canal became a great highway for settlers seeking 
the West. At certain seasons of the year every 



An Era of Internal Improvements 



177 



highway leading into the corn country was filled 
with prospective settlers, who were willing to endure 
many hardships in order to reach the wonderful 
corn country. The following table tells the story 
of the migration: , 

Movement of Population Westward from 1820 to 1850 



State 


1820 


1830 


1840 


1850 


Ohio 


581,295 


957,903 


1,519,467 


1,988,329 


Indiana .... 


147,178 


343,031 


685,866 


988,416 


Illinois 


55,162 


157,445 


476,183 


851,470 


Michigan . . . 


8,765 


31,639 


212,267 


397,654 


Wisconsin . . 






30,945 


305,391 


Iowa 






43,112 


192,214 


Minnesota . . 








6,077 


Missouri . . . 


66,567 


140,455 


383,702 


582,044 


Kentucky . . 


564,135 


687,917 


779,824 


982,405 


Tennessee . . 


422,771 


681,904 


829,210 


1,002,717 


Alabama . . . 


127,901 


309,527 


590,756 


771,623 


Mississippi. . 


75,448 


136,621 


375,651 


606,526 


Louisiana . . . 


152,923 


215,739 


352,411 


517,762 


Arkansas 




30,388 


97,574 


209,897 


Texas 








212,592 



By 1850 Ohio had a larger population than Massa- 
chusetts. In fact, its population was almost equal 
to that of all the other New England States com- 
bined. Michigan had a population greater than that 
of any New England state except Massachusetts. 
To a considerable extent the emigration that came 
from different sections of New England followed 
parallel lines. By 1840 New England had prac- 
tically ceased to grow. In the next decade many 
towns and districts lost heavily in population, and a 
number of them have never recovered from the loss. 

The period of the greatest emigration from the 
South was, however, from 1830 to 1840. It was 



7/5 The Story of Corn 

even greater than that from New England a decade 
later. Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina 
remained practically stationary, while Alabama, 
Mississippi, and Louisiana grew almost as rapidly as 
did the Northwestern States. No considerable area 
of the West was now cut off from a market, for one 
could be reached either by way of the Mississippi 
to the Gulf or lower South, or else by way of canals 
and. the Great Lakes to Buffalo and New York. 

Immigration from Europe began to increase 
rapidly after 1830, and it was especially large during 
the years 1845-1850, which were marked by famine 
in Ireland and by a revolution on the Continent. 
The average annual influx during this period was 
three hundred thousand. These were at first dis- 
tributed throughout New York, Massachusetts, and 
Pennsylvania, but they, too, soon followed the west- 
ern routes. This was especially true of the Ger- 
mans, who settled in the country north of the Ohio. 

Westward and northward flowed this ceaseless 
stream of immigrants, across the Mississippi, up 
the Missouri, along the Great Lakes, until the wave 
reached the Red River, where the waters run toward 
the Arctic circle. Here Minnesota, the northern- 
most of the great grain states between the Missouri 
and the Ohio, began to take shape. In 1850 
Minnesota had over six thousand inhabitants. 

The Grain of the West. The growth, of the 
Northwest and the development of the trade in 
foodstuffs is one of the -marvels of the nineteenth 
century. So rapidly did the settlers open up 



An Era of Internal Improvements I'jg 

new lands, and so fertile were these virgin fields, 
that notwithstanding the improvements made in 
transportation it was impossible to move all the 
grain to the markets of the world where it was so 
greatly needed. Corn was becoming more and more 
valuable, not as an article of export but as a food for 
cattle and hogs, and the business of driving cattle 
and hogs to Baltimore and Philadelphia increased 
in volume every year. During the financial panics 
that occurred periodically between 1820 and 1850 
the cattle trade between the East and the West 
ranked as one of the chief resources of the West, 
always commanding ready money regardless of 
hard times. By 1835 a general interest in the 
improvement of stock took hold of the people of the 
West, although the farmers of Kentucky and Ohio 
had long been improving cattle for breeding purposes. 
The cattle trade became so profitable that the 
ranchmen of Texas drove their steers more than a 
thousand miles to Ohio, where they were fattened 
on corn for the markets of the East. 

The corn of the West was also turned into pork, 
and the business of driving hogs to the markets of 
the East increased likewise, although Cincinnati 
had early begun to pack pork for the Mississippi 
Valley. As the raising of corn was now rapidly 
declining in the East, the meat supply also decreased. 
At this period Cincinnati became the great meat 
market of America and cargoes of pork went by 
way of the canals and the Great Lakes to eastern 
markets. American pork, however, did not become 



i8o The Story of Corn 




C'ji'iriiibi L.i Dcirui I Photographic Co. 

Texas cattle on their way to the corn country to he fattened for 
eastern markets 

an article of much export value until near the 
middle of the century. One reason given for this 
was that American packers did not preserve it 
properly for the long voyage. Senator Benton of 
Missouri said, however, that the tariff on salt held 
back the pork trade for about three decades. In 
1 8 13, during the second war with England, Congress 
levied a tax of twenty cents a bushel on alum salt, 
which was continued until 1830. Only alum salt 
could be used in preparing pork for foreign trade, 
and this tariff on it worked a hardship to the West. 
It is interesting to note here that the fish markets of 
New England also used alum salt. But according 
to Senator Benton, Congress paid them a rebate 
which about equalized this duty, and indeed, at one 
time practically the entire duty paid on this salt 
went to New England as a bounty. In 18 14 thiS' 



An Era of Internal Improvements i8i 

salt cost about three dollars a bushel, and later as 
much as five dollars. In 1832 the tax was reduced, 
the grain of the West took another form, and Cincin- 
nati taught the world the business of pork packing. 

How the World was needing the Grain of the West. 
It is difficult for us to appreciate the tremendous 
importance of corn in the world's history. The 
world could not depend upon wheat. It was an 
unreliable crop, and the civilized world did not 
produce at any one time a sufficient quantity. 
A wet harvest always caused a small crop and some- 
times a famine. As England depended almost en- 
tirely on wheat, the food question was ever present 
in Parliament. Richard Cobden said in 1841: 
''When I go down to the manufacturing districts I 
know that I shall be returning to a gloomy scene. 
I know that starvation is stalking through the land 
and men are perishing for want of the barest neces- 
sities of life .... There are a thousand homes 
in England at this moment where wives, mothers, 
and children are dying of hunger.'* He pleaded 
with Parliament to take off the tariff and let in 
American grain free of duty. 

Russia, Belgium, and Holland had suspended all 
duties on grain by 1845, but the famine in England 
continued. It was especially severe in Ireland. Yet 
it was not until 1846 that the import tax on grain 
was removed. The year before this act was passed, 
Robert Peel, the English prime minister, bought 
Indian corn, amounting in value to £100,000, in 
America, and shipped it to Ireland. It was called 



i82 The Story of Corn ' 

by the Irish ''Peers brimstone.'' That was the 
beginning of the European trade in Indian corn. 

At last the nations of Europe had removed the 
tariff on foodstuff and were caUing for the grain of 
the West. But transportation was still slow and 
facilities inadequate to handle the business. While 
corn and wheat were rotting in the fields of the West, 
bread could not be bought at any price in certain 
European cities. 

But another era was at hand. An invention had 
given an impetus to land transportation — the 
railroad was slowly creeping westward. When the 
railroad bound the cities of the East to the grain 
fields of the West, a new chapter began in the 
world's history. 



CHAPTER XII 

IIailroads: Completing the Connection of the 

Corn Country with the Markets 

of the East 

The Problem. The grain of the West was nec- 
essary not only to the welfare of the East but also 
to the welfare of European nations. No other 
section in all the world was producing or could 
produce food to spare in such immense quantities, 
and only a few were producing enough for their 
own immediate needs. We have already seen that 
food was frequently scarce in New England and the 
Middle Atlantic States ; that people in the cities and 
manufacturing centers of Europe were frequently 
facing starvation. At the same time there was 
more grain in the northern Mississippi Valley than 
could be hauled away. It was evident, therefore, 
that the Mississippi River, although uniting com- 
mercially the grain and cotton countries, did not 
give the best outlet for the surplus grain. 

You will observe that the Mississippi River runs 
toward the equator. Therefore, it does not run 
toward the great markets of the world. But direct 
trade routes to the corn country were now being 
demanded. And how to open these direct trade 
lines to the West was now the problem. Canals had 
offered a seeming solution, but they soon proved to be 

183 



184 The Story of Corn 

unequal to the task. The one great barrier to trade 
and to the world's progress was the Appalachian 
Mountains. The strength of a people, however, is 
measured by their ability to overcome geographical 
barriers. Again one man became the world's bene- 
factor. A second great invention came to revolution- 
ize land traffic. 

The Coming of the Railroad. While Fulton was 
completing his first steamboat and New York was 
surveying the canal route from the Hudson River to 
the Great Lakes, a young engineer employed in one 
of the coal mines at Killingsworth, England, was 
experimenting with a steam engine. He was trying 
it out to see if it could be used to pull wagons loaded 
with coal from the coal pits to the shipping stations. 

Railways had long been in use. At first they 
consisted of a rough line of wooden rails laid down for 
the easy guidance of wagons in which freight was 
hauled by the aid of horses. Many such lumber 
roads exist to-day, but few would now think of 
calling them railways. Yet these railways, as they 
were called, had been in use long before the first 
colony landed at Jamestown. After Watt invented 
the steam engine, however, many people thought 
it possible to construct an engine that would pull 
these wagons over the wooden roads. But it was 
the general belief that the rail and wheels of the 
engine must have cogs, in order that the wheels 
might ''bite" the rails and thus get the necessary 
*'pull.'' Hence, small strips of iron were laid on 
the wooden rails. 



Railroads and the Corn Country 185 

The Inventor of the Locomotive. It was George 
Stephenson, the son of a poor miner, who gave the 
locomotive to the world. It was his genius that 
revolutionized land traffic, changed, old lines of 
transportation, and made it possible for the remote 
districts of America to connect easily and quickly 
with the markets of the world. It is fitting, there- 
fore, to study this man and his wonderful invention 
that brought the East and the West so closely 
together and that made Indian corn the great 
national grain of America. 

This great inventor was born in a small coal- 
mining village near Newcastle, England. His father, 
Robert Stephenson, was fireman of one of the 
pumping engines at the mines. George carried his 
father's dinner and helped his mother take care of 
his younger brothers and sisters. His highest 
ambition was to work with his father at the mines, 
and as soon as he was large enough he was employed 
as ''picker," to clear the coal of stones and dross. 
Within a short time he had become a fireman like 
his father. At the age of seventeen he became a 
master engineer, and thus passed his father in his 
profession. 

In 1804 he went to live at Killingsworth where 
he acquired his reputation as an engineer and where 
he invented the locomotive. 

An engine known as the Blenkensop engine had 
already been operated. It communicated the power 
to cog wheels which acted on cog rails, independent 
of the four wheels that supported the engine. This 



i86 



The Story of Corn 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Stephenson's locomotive, the model for all the locomotives that have 
been constructed, is still preserved at Canterbury, England 

was in accordance with the old ideas concerning 
steam railways. Stephenson studied this engine, 
and experimented with it. He beHeved that the 
adhcvsion of the wheels to the rails would be sufficient 
to pull the train without the cogs. On July 25, 1 8 14, 
he gave to the world his locomotive with smooth 
wheels rolling on smooth rails. It was a success 



Railroads and the Corn Country i8y 

from the beginning. The experiment was no sooner 
made than the capacity of his engine was doubled, 
and by 1815 he had so improved his engine that it 
really became the model of all that have since been 
constructed. 

This wonderful invention had been in use at 
Killingsworth many years before it excited any 
interest. Stephenson had no means of bringing it 
to the notice of the public, and it was not until 1821, 
when a horse-car road was proposed from Liverpool 
to Manchester, that Stephenson came prominently 
before the public. He was instrumental in having 
the plans changed from cog rails to smooth, and 
this road, completed in 1829, became the first 
important road in the world to operate the steam 
locomotive. When the road was completed the 
company offered a prize of five hundred pounds for 
the best locomotive. 

The "Rocket. '^ Stephenson in the meantime 
had erected a locomotive factory. Other engineers 
also had begun the construction of locomotives, 
but it was Stephenson's ''Rocket'' that won. The 
public opening of this important railroad took place 
on September 15, 1830. The Duke of Wellington, 
Prime Minister, and Sir Robert Peel, Secretary of 
State, were present. Thousands of people turned 
out to see the trains run. Mr. Huskinson, a member 
of Parliament, in attempting to pass one of the doors, 
stumbled and fell on the track. The *' Rocket" 
passed over him and he died that evening. One 
of the engines conveyed the body back to Liverpool 



i88 The Story of Corn 

at the rate of thirty-six miles an hour. This incred- 
'ible speed burst upon the world as a most startling 
phenomenon. The Duke of Wellington was so 
frightened that he would not ride on a train until 
years afterwards — not until the king and queen had 
made several trips. 

The Value of Stephenson's Invention. The new 
road was a success from the beginning. The names 
of George Stephenson and his son, Robert, who was 
his father's greatest support, were on the tongue of 
every one. Their success was assured. The coun- 
tries of Europe were calling for their assistance; 
America was calling for Stephenson's locomotive. 
Mountains were tunneled ; seaports were connected 
with remote interiors; swamps and rivers were 
bridged; the ''iron horse" was introduced into every 
civilized land. Bread became cheaper, since it 
could be carried quickly from country to country; 
while the corn of America could be easily distributed 
among the markets of the world. George Stephen- 
son made every civilized land feel the force of a 
universal progress. The great railway systems of 
the world to-day, as they carry thousands of people 
from town to town, as they transport millions of 
tons of the world's necessities of life, pay tribute to 
the genius, skill, and energy of George Stephenson, 
the inventor of the locomotive. 

The Coming of the Locomotive to America. The 
corn country had long been awaiting some mighty 
force like the locomotive. It was not expected, 
however, that it would ever compete with the canal 



Railroads and the Corn Country 



189 



boat or the steamboat. It was thought that the 
railway would serve merely as a convenient mode of 





™ 






^fmfmm;:^-''»m * 


m 1] 




il 


^: (Mm mm lmm'''i:mf 



The Stourbridge^^ Lion. ^^ This locomotive^ huilt in England 

in 182Q, was the first practical steam locomotive 

to run in America 

connecting cities with waterways. At first loco- 
motives were not expected to be freight carriers to 
any great extent, but it was believed that they would 
carry chiefly passengers and mail, and at most the 
lighter freight. 

The opening of the Erie Canal, connecting New 
York with the corn country, roused Pennsylvania 
to action. The corn and wheat of the West were 
going to New York. In 1826, therefore, Pennsyl- 
vania began her system of public works, the main 
feature of which was a rail-and-water route between 
Philadelphia and the Ohio River. Nothing illus- 
trates more forcibly the intense interest the East 
had in the corn of the West than this Pennsylvania 
undertaking. It consisted of. a railway between 



igo The Story of Corn 

Philadelphia and the Susquehanna River, a canal up 
the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers to HoUidays- 
burg, a portage railway to carry the canal barges 
over the mountains from HoUidaysburg to Johns- 
town, and a canal connecting Johnstown with 
Pittsburgh. As soon as Pennsylvania began this 
system of internal improvements, Maryland also 
became very active and the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
way was begun. That all these lines were working 
toward the great corn country is easily seen. In 
1828, Charles Carroll, the only surviving signer of 
the Declaration of Independence, broke ground for 
a steam railway from Baltimore to EUicott's Mill, 
Maryland. The locomotive that drew the solitary 
wagon on this road was built by Peter Cooper, 
and it was the first American-built locomotive 
engine. On its trial trip it ran a race with a stage- 
coach, and there was great rejoicing when *'Tom 
Thumb," the engine, won the race. 

The efforts of the Eastern States to connect with 
the West roused South Carolina and Georgia to 
activity. They, too, began to look for a closer 
union with the Southwest. While New York, 
Pennsylvania, and Maryland were experimenting 
with the locomotive. South Carolina was engaged in 
building a railroad from Charleston to Hamburg on 
the Savannah River. 

While Stephenson was experimenting with his 
engine in England wooden railways were being built 
in America. When the Baltimore & Ohio road was 
first opened in America, horse cars were used. But 



Railroads and the Corn Country igi 

the carriages moved so easily on these smooth rails 
that two dogs harnessed to one carriage containing 
six persons trotted away with much ease. Another 
carriage fitted out with sails moved along the road, 
to the amusement of the spectators. Every road 
was making experiments, and many kinds of motive 
power were tried. However, the success of the 
Liverpool- Manchester Road of England, in 1830, 
when Stephenson's ''Rocket'' made its successful 
trip, impressed the world with the fact that a revolu- 
tion in transportation was at hand. In the same 
year the second American-built locomotive, *'The 
Best Friend," was put to work on the South Carolina 
road. The following year the Baltimore & Ohio 
Company offered a prize of four thousand dollars 
for an American engine. The prize was won by the 
''York," built by Messrs. Davis and Gartner of 
York, Pennsylvania. In 1832 Matthias W. Bald- 
win built his engine, "Old Ironsides," modeled after 
Stephenson's engine. This was the beginning of 
the American locomotive. 

The Railroad starts toward the Com Country. 
After the appearance of the locomotive the one 
dream of the eastern markets was to extend the 
railroad into the corn country. Maryland, Penn- 
sylvania, and New York were competing for the 
corn of the West, and other leading lines were 
started westward. 

The great panic of 1837 checked canal building; 
in fact, the railway was beginning to prove a serious 
competitor of the canals for the trade of the West. 



ig2 The Story of Corn 

As the country recovered from the financial disturb- 
ances the renewed activity in internal improvements 
was spent in building railroads, and the importance 
of the canal began to decline. \ 

The locomotive in the meantime was slowly 
creeping toward the West. The railways were like 
strong iron arms held out by the cities of the East 
to the cornfields of the West. By 1842 Albany was 
connected with Buffalo. Nine years later (1851) 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

Corn and alfalfa in the Fox River Valley, Illinois, the heart of the 

vast corn country that for more than half a century 

has been the granary of the world 

the New York Road had reached Dunkirk on Lake 
Erie. When the first wagon train was started 
between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Baltimore 
saw the tremendous value of the trade with the 
grain country, and almost as soon as the Stephenson 
engine was given to the world Maryland, and 
Baltimore especially, became very active. In 1853 
the Baltimore & Ohio Railway connected Baltimore 
with the Ohio River. The very heart of the corn 
country was at last reached. It is interesting to 



194 



The Story oj Corn 



note here that the railroads in crossing the moun- 
tains always followed the old Indian trails.^ 

The Effect of the Railway. George Stephenson's 
wonderful invention was the beginning of a new 
chapter in the world's history and a mighty era 
in the world's progress. By it the great distance 
between the East and the West was overcome, and 
the Appalachian Mountains no longer stood as a 
barrier between the grain fields of America and the 
markets of the world. The railroad drew the trade 
from the Mississippi River and broke the union of 
the West and the South. To-day the great highways 
of commerce run east and west. As the railroad 
pushed into the far Northwest a new industrial 
center developed, and the pork-packing business 
was moved from Cincinnati to Chicago. New 
Orleans ceased to be the leading distributing point of 
the Mississippi Valley, and Chicago, the result of the 
union of the railroad and the grain fields of the West, 
has become one of the greatest cities in the world. 

Before the railroad entered the West, corn formed 
only a small part of the foreign trade of America. 
It had been difficult to ship corn to any great distance 
because it molded so rapidly when stored in large 
quantities. This grain, so important to the early 
settlers and so valuable as a food for cattle, hogs, and 



1 The following table shows the number of miles of railroad built in each decade 
from 1820 to 1900: 


Year 


Miles 


Year 


Miles 


1830 
1840 
1850 
i860 


23 

2,818 

9,021 

30,626 


1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 


52,922 
93.296 
166,703 
194,262 



Railroads and the Corn Country igj 

horses, was necessarily consumed on the farm, and 
a surplus crop was practically a waste. Our early 
reports on trade and commerce had little to say of 
this grain that has become so important to the 
welfare of the nation to-day. Before the railroad 
entered the West the chief value of corn was in 
supplying a primary and very necessary food for 
man until the land would produce wheat. Then it 
became of secondary importance as a food for man. 




Photograph by Wm. Baylis 



A modern freight carrier. Through the development of the locomotive 

corn became the national grain of America and an 

important part of our foreign trade 

although still of primary importance as a food for 
stock. We have already seen how the trade in live 
stock added materially to the wealth of the West. 

After the coming of the railroad, however, large 
quantities of corn could be moved quickly, and 
hogs and cattle could be shipped with but little loss 
of weight. Such great quantities of corn and meat 
were shipped from the West that the East almost 
ceased to grow its foodstuffs and relied chiefly upon 



iq6 . The Story of Corn 

the western farmer for food. The corn of the 
Indians now became the great national grain of 
America, and for a time contributed more to the 
wealth of this- country than did all the cotton of the 
South, and all other cereals combined. For more 
than half a century the West has been the granary 
of the world. From the time that John Smith's 
Virginia colony was saved from starvation by this 
grain, until the coming of the railroad, it formed the 
chief food of all settlers as they opened up new 
lands and ''extended" the western boundaries of 
the nation. After the coming of the railroad, 
Indian corn entered into the commerce of the world 
and became the most important cereal of America. 



CHAPTER XIII 
The Granary of the World 

A New Era. Many changes have taken place in 
the world's history, and especially in the develop- 
ment of the United States, since the railroads of 
the East entered the great corn country. So great 
have been the changes that hardly a man lives to-day 
as did our grandfathers in the days of the old stage- 
coach, when our grandmothers cooked in the open 
fireplace, covered up the live coals at night for fear 
of losing the fire, and read or sewed by the light of 
the tallow candle. Cook stoves had not yet come 
into common use; the friction match was rarely 
seen; the kerosene lamp, to say nothing of electric 
lights, was entirely unknown. Manners, customs, 
and habits of living have all changed since then. 
But the changes in our political and industrial life 
have been equally great. 

Before the railroad entered the West the destiny 
of the corn country was linked with that of the 
cotton country of the South. In those days com- 
merce followed the rivers, and the mighty Mississippi 
was the greatest highway of trade in America. 
But whe^ the railroads from New York, Philadelphia, 
and Baltimore pushed across the mountains into 
the Ohio Valley the interests of the corn country 
were turned away from the South. Henceforth all 

197 



ig8 The Story of Corn 

great questions concerning the 'welfare of the nation 
were decided by the East and the West, while the 
South was left to itself. Slavery, the tariff, internal 
improvements, and the distribution of the free 
public lands were very important questions when 
the locomotive made its first trip across the moun- 
tains. As long as the interests of the corn country 
and the cotton country were the same commercially 
the two sections of the Mississippi Valley remained 
united politically. But when the corn country 
became united commercially with the business 
centers of the East, the South, with its institution 
of slavery, was too much isolated to remain a factor 
in the further development of the nation. The 
cotton states withdrew from the Union, and Civil 
War followed. 

The Movement Westward. Although this war 
broke the South, it interfered but little with the 
marvelous growth of the corn country. The table 
in Chapter XI shows the westward movement of 
population to 1850. We have followed migration 
across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. We have seen 
this great tide of homeseekers cross over the Missis- 
sippi into the rich river valley of the Missouri and 
into the prairie lands of Iowa. We then saw this 
tide turn northward into Minnesota. We have 
seen great numbers of Irish and Germans flee from 
the famines and wars of the Old World and join 
the immigrant trains leading into the far Northwest. 
The object was always the same — possession of the 
rich corn-producing land — and not even the Civil 



The Granary of the World 



igg 



War could break the charm of the waving corn fields 
for the distressed of the East and the multitudes 
that came to our shores. 

The coming of the railroad so facilitated travel 
westward that the stream of settlers bound for the 
rich lands of the great West increased in volume even 
during the years from i860 to 1870, while the great 
Civil War was in progress. Notice the following 
table : 

Population in the Corn Country from 1850 to 1870 



State 


1850 


i860 


1870 


Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Michigan 

Wisconsin 

Iowa 

Minnesota 

Kansas 

Nebraska 


1,980,329 
988,416 
351,470 
397,654 
315,391 
192,214 
6,077 


2,339,511 
1,350,428 

1,711,951 
749,113 

775,881 

674,913 

172,023 

107,206 

28,841 


2,665,260 
1,680,637 

2,539,891 
1,184,059 
1,054,670 
1,194,020 
439,706 

364,399 
122,993 



Minnesota, in 1850, had only about six thousand 
inhabitants, but in i860 the number had increased 
to rnore than one hundred seventy thousand, and 
ten years later it was not far from half a million. 
Kansas, in i860, had only about one hundred thou- 
sand settlers, but ten years later it had more than 
three hundred fifty thousand, Nebraska, in i860, 
had less than thirty thousand people, but ten years 
later the number had increased to nearly one 
hundred twenty-five thousand. Up the Missouri 
and the Platte went the homeseekers of the world, 
until the western limits of the prairie lands were 
reached, and the great grassy plains of the land 



200 



The Story of Corn 



of little rain presented a new soil and a new climate. 
The Limits of the Corn Country. West of Kansas 
and Nebraska are the plains of little rain. This is 
the land of cowboys and cattle ranches. When 
the first settlers reached these big, grassy plains 
many of them turned northward, always following 
the rich river valleys and fertile lands that promised 
an abundance of grain. On into the Dakotas 
they went, until they reached the Canada line. 

The Center of Population from 1790 to 1910 



Date 


Approximate Location 


Westward 

Movement 

IN Miles 


1790.. 
1800. . 


23 miles east of Baltimore, Md 




18 miles west of Baltimore, Md 


41 
36 
50 
39 

55 

55 
81 

42 

57 
48 

14 
39 


1810. . 
1820. . 
1830.. 
1840. . 
1850.. 
i860. . 
1870. . 
1880. . 
1890. . 
1900. . 
1910. . 


40 miles northwest by west of Washington, D.C. 

16 miles north of Woodstock, Va 

19 miles west-southwest of Moorefield, W.Va. . . 
16 miles south of Clarksburg, W.Va 


23 miles southeast of Parkersburg, W.Va 

20 miles south of Chillicothe, Ohio 

48 miles east by north of Cincinnati, Ohio 

8 miles west by south of Cincinnati, Ohio 

20 miles east of Columbus, Ind 

6 miles southeast of Columbus, Ind 

In the city of Bloomington, Ind 



Notice in the table above how the center of 
population has moved westward since the beginning 
of the westward migration. 

The last large section of the prairie to be opened 
to settlers was Oklahoma Territory. This was 
originally a part of the old Indian Territory, set 
apart for the use of the Indians who had been 
driven from the lands east of the Mississippi. There 
was a strong demand for this land, as it was very 
fertile and easily cultivated. The national govern- 



The Granary of the World 201 

ment announced that on April 22, 1889, the Territory 
of Oklahoma would be thrown open to settlers. 




Herding cattle in Montana. Beyond the western limit of the corn 

country the settlers turned to stock raising, and great herds 

were pastured on the dry grassy plains and then driven 

to the corn states to he fattened for market 

No one was allowed to enter until noon of the day 
advertised. As the day approached, thousands of 
homeseekers, many with their wives and children, 
crowded along the boundary line and waited 
eagerly for the signal to enter. On the day set, 
exactly at the noon hour, the signal was given; and 
before sundown fifty thousand settlers had entered 
the new territory and staked their claims. Guthrie, 
the first capital, was built in a day, with ten thousand 
inhabitants. That was probably the most remark- 
able rush for new land by enlightened people that 
the world has ever seen. But Oklahoma is the 
last of the great prairie states, and all the land of 



202 



The Story oj Corn 



the corn country is now taken up; indeed, some 
of the states that received such large numbers of 
settlers only a few decades ago have even ceased 
to grow, as the table given below shows. Notice 
especially the state of Iowa. Other states have lost 
in population in the farming districts, though the 
cities have grown considerably. 

Population in the Corn Country from 1880 to 1910 



State 


1880 


1890 


1900 


1910 


Ohio 


3,198,062 

1,978,301 

3,077,871 

1,636,937 

1,315,497 

- 780,773 

1,624,615 

452,402 

996,096 


3,672,329 
2,192,404 
3,826,351 
2,093,890 
1,693,330 
1,310,283 
1,912,297 
1,062,656 
1,428,108 
190,983 
348,600 

258,657 
1,767,518 

1,858,635 


4,157,545 
2,516,462 

4,821,550 
2,420,982 
2,069,042 

1,751,394 
2,231,853 
1,066,300 
1,470,495 
319,146 
401,570 

790,391 
2,020,616 

2,147,174 


4,767,121 
2,700,876 


Indiana 


Illinois 


5,638,591 
2,810,173 
2. '^'^'^.860 


Michigan 


Wisconsin 


Minnesota 


2.07S.708 


Iowa 


2,224,771 


Nebraska 


1,192,214 

1,690,949 

577,056 

583,888 
1,657,155 


Kansas 


North Dakota 

South Dakota 

Oklahoma 


Tennessee 

Kentucky 


1,542,359 
1,648,690 


2,184,789 
2,289,905 



Prosperity of the Corn Country. When the census 
was taken in 1910 over thirty million people were 
living in the upper Mississippi Valley. This wonder- 
fully fertile region produced such tremendous quan- 
tities of foodstuff that great commercial centers 
were needed to distribute the grain and its products 
to the Eastern States and to the countries of Europe. 
Large cities sprang up as if by magic. The wheat, 
corn, hogs, and cattle, and the natural products of 
the forests and the mines, had to be prepared for 
the markets of the world. Therefore such industries 
as flour mills, packing houses, grain elevators, and a 



The Granary of the World 



203 




The distribution of population in the United States at the beginning 
of the twentieth century 

variety of manufacturing industries soon increased 
the wealth of the country, and continued to draw 
settlers from every section of the civilized world. 
In fact, these manufacturing centers have drawn so 
heavily from the rural districts that the population 
engaged in agricultural pursuits has decreased in 
some of the states. 

As the railroad moved farther and farther west- 
ward it had the tendency to carry the prices of the 
East and of Europe to the fields of the West. Com- 
pare the prices at Cincinnati in 1826 and in i860: 



Product 


Price in 1826 


Price in i860 


Flour... 

Corn 

Hogs 

Lard 


$3.00 a barrel 
.12 a bushel 
2.00 a cwt. 
.05 a pound 


$5.60 a barrel 
.48 a bushel 
6.20 a cwt. 
.11 a pound 



The railroad not only made it profitable to raise 
wheat, corn, hogs, and cattle, but as these articles 



204 ^^^ Story of Corn 

rose in value the land also increased in value. 
Public lands in Illinois that the government had 
not been able to dispose of for one dollar and a 
quarter an acre became at once very valuable, and 
in i860 the same lands were selling for eleven 
dollars and fifteen dollars an acre. 

The railroad, however, was not the only agency 
that carried prosperity to the Northwest. The 
steamboats on the Mississippi and the inland canals 
contributed their part likewise. But the Great Lakes 
had the greatest influence of all the water routes on 
the building of the West. The steamboat appeared 
on the lakes before the railroad had penetrated the 
heart of the West, and the lake route has always been 
the cheaper route. For over half a century there has 
been strong competition between the railroad and 
the steamboat for the trade of the West, and this 
has lowered transportation rates more and more. 

In 1820, before the days of the canal or railroad, 
it cost two dollars to send a bushel of wheat or corn 
from Buffalo to New York. In 1840, however, 
when the Erie Canal was the great carrier, it cost 
about seventeen cents a bushel. It is easy, there- 
fore, to see the advantage of the canal. In 1900, 
after the railroad had entered into competition with 
the canal boats, the rate per bushel between Buffalo 
and New York had fallen to less than two cents. 
At that time a bushel of wheat or corn could be 
moved from Chicago to New York for less than five 
cents. It is easy to see, therefore, how the West 
would profit greatly by this competition. 



The Granary of the World 205 

The prosperity of the corn country finds its most 
characteristic expression, however, especially in the 
growth of one city that is distinctly the product of 
the corn of the Northwest. 

How Grain made Chicago. Study a map of 
the Northwest and notice particularly the location 
of Chicago. In 181 2 the site upon which this 




From a painting by Laurence C. Earle 

Chicago River near Wolf Point, 1833. Chicago then consisted of 

a few rude houses on the hanks of the river y in a marshy 

region known to the Indians as ^^Wild Onion Place' ^ 

mighty city stands to-day was a marsh containing 
only the ruins of an abandoned fort. The Indians 
spoke of it as *'Wild Onion Place." Not until 1833 
did it become even a town. What is now the chief 
business section of Chicago was then a pasture, and 
all the mail received into the little village was 
deposited in a drygoods box which served as a post 
office. With the appearance of the steamboat on 
the lakes a profitable trade developed, and in 1840 



206 



The Story of Corn 



Chicago had a population of 4,479. It is said that 
hogs were so numerous in and around the town at 
that time that they wandered at will through the 
streets and at last became such a nuisance to the 
inhabitants that in 1843 an act was passed depriving 
them of the freedom of the city. 

The cornfields were steadily drawing the population 
westward into Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 




Photograph by Frank M. Hallenbeck, Chicago 

A busy corner, Chicago. In i8jj this section was a pasture and 

as late as 1843 hogs wandered at will through the 

streets of the village 

The Illinois & Michigan Canal, connecting Chicago 
with the Mississippi River, was completed in 1848 
and the cornfields of the upper Mississippi Valley 
were connected with the lake ports. Four years later 



The Granary of the World 



2oy 



the railroad entered the city. This was the begin- 
ning of Chicago's wonderful development, and com- 
manding as it does the greater part of the trade of the 
upper Mississippi Valley,, it soon became the greatest 
food market in the world. At that time, 1852, the 
population was hardly thirty thousand, but in 1870 
it had increased to over three hundred thousand. 

Consult your geography again and you will 
observe that Chicago's location gives it a con- 
siderable advantage over Cincinnati. The new 
corn lands opened up after 1840 found a market at 
Chicago. Vast areas were opened, railroads were 
built, and the grain and pork of the upper Missis- 
sippi Valley poured into Chicago. By i860 the 
trade of the grain country was turning away from 
the Mississippi Valley toward the lakes, and New 
Orleans had ceased to control even a large part of 
the grain of this valley. By 1870 Chicago had 
become the food center of the world. 

Chicago's Reports in Wheatland Corn 



YfeAR 


Wheat and Flour 
IN Bushels 


Corn 
IN Bushels 


1840. . . . 
1845.... 
1848 

1853-.. . 
1856.... 
I86I.... 


10,000 

1,024,620 
2,386,000 
1,680,998 

9419,365 

23,885,553 




67,315 

550,460 ' 

2,780,253 

11,129,668 

24,372,725 



Corn did not enter the world's commerce to any 
great extent until after the rise of Chicago. The 
table above shows the wonderful rapidity with 
which corn rose to a ^lace of importance in the 
world's markets. 



2o8 The Story of Corn 

Relation of Corn to the Live-Stock Industry. 

When John McKen^ie of Ohio sent his first drove of 
cattle on foot across the mountains to Baltimore 
he started a business that has grown in importance 
until to-day the trade in meats is second only to that 
in breadstuffs. Great cornfields make it possible to 
produce large quantities of live stock, and when 
the corn of the West was rotting in the fields for lack 
of transportation, hogs were so plentiful that they 
became a nuisance in the streets of Chicago. The 
world needed the beef and pork of the West, but 
there was no quick way to get them to the markets. 
It could not be foreseen at that time that within 
less than half a century Chicago would become the 
greatest meat center in the world, that the pork- 
packing industry would move from Cincinnati to 
Chicago and become the leading industry of that 
city, and that Europe would buy millions of pounds 
of meat annually from Chicago packers. 

In the fifties there were a half dozen stock yards 
located in various sections of Chicago, but at that 
time Cincinnati was still the center of the meat- 
packing industry. There was little demand then 
for the cattle and hogs received at the Chicago 
yards, and the stock was pastured in the surrounding 
prairie until there was a call for it. In 1865 all 
the stock yards were consolidated, and the hogs and 
cattle that once roamed around in that *' Onion 
Town'* and tormented the community now became 
part of a mighty business. To-day meat packing 
is the greatest industry of Chicago. From two 



The Granary of the World 



20Q 



thirds to four fifths of the cattle" and hogs received 
in the Chicago yards are killed and sent out in 




A view of the cattle pens at the Chicago stock yards, ivhere two 

million cattle and eight million hogs are gathered 

annually for slaughter 

various forms of prepared meats and by-products 
(lard, fertilizer, glue, butterine, soap, and candles). 
The number of hogs packed yearly is about eight 
million, and of cattle, about two million. We can 
appreciate these figures when we learn that Chicago 
slaughters more hogs annually than are raised in all 
the Atlantic States from Maine to Florida, omitting 
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Thus, 
in addition to the amount of grain shipped to the 
East, and to European markets, the corn of the 
West is converted into cattle and hogs, and corn 



210 



The Story of Corn 




Coi>yright, 1915, by Rand McNally <fe Com}jaiiy 

Map showing the areas in which hogs were raised in igog 

products in the United States to-day have a valua- 
tion greater than that of all other agricultural 
products combined. 

As population moved westward into the great 
plains, the grass-fed cattle of Montana, the Dakotas, 
and even Texas were shipped to Chicago, where 
they were prepared for the markets of the world. 
Every farmer in the corn belt contributed his quota 
of hogs and cattle, thus giving a meat supply to the 
whole of America and to much of Europe. As the 
West developed, however, other centers like Duluth, 
St. Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha developed, and 
when the railroad entered these cities they, too, 
began to supply the world with foodstuff. 

The Product of the Packing Houses. The 
packing houses have become great factories where 
complicated machinery is at work slaughtering the 



The Granary of the World 



211 



animals and converting them into a variety of useful 
things. Nothing is thrown away. When settlers 
first entered the corn country very little of the 
cattle — save the beef, the hides, and the tallow — 
was used. But to-day not a thing from nose to tail 
is thrown away. The hide is first removed, and 
after being tanned is sent to the factories which 
make all kinds of leather goods. The hind quar- 
ters, loins, and ribs are carved into many kinds of 
steaks or roasts, and packed in ice for shipment. 
The fore quarters, after the bones are removed, 
are put into sweet pickle for several days, then 
boiled, packed into cans, and sold as corned 
beef. The bones are carefully preserved and made 
into such articles as combs, buttons, and hairpins, 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 



Some American corn-fed stock 



212 The Story of Corn 

or they are ground up and made into fertilizer. 
The hair is sold to plasterers ; the hoofs are made into 
glue; and the blood is either sold to sugar manu- 
facturers to be used in whitening sugar, or is sold 
for fertilizer. In addition to all this, we have beef 
extracts, various kinds of oil, tallow candles, tripe, 
pickled tongue, and many other products. 

The number of articles made from the hog is 
likewise great. Nothing here is wasted. ^ The hair 
is first removed and sold to dealers to be used in 
upholstering, plastering, and in the manufacture of 
ropes, mats, brushes, and so on. The meat is cut 
into hams of various shapes and sizes, and many 
kinds of side meat. 

From the fat of the hog several grades of lard 
are made, to be used in cooking, in making a kind 
of butter known as butterine, and in purifying old 
butter. Sausage is made chiefly from the lean 
meat taken from various parts of the animal and 
much of it is stuffed into casings made from the 
entrails. Other parts of the flesh are converted into 
soap, glycerine, and so on, while the bones, blood, 
and all refuse taken from the stomachs of the 
anirnals are used in the same way as the similar parts 
of cattle. 

The meat-packing business of Chicago is thus 
seen to be a great and far-reaching industry. Every 
grocery store in this country and in nearly every 
country of Europe carries many articles made from 
the cattle and hogs slaughtered in Chicago. As 
this business has grown there has come a greater 



The Granary of the World 213 

demand for the corn of the West, since the vast 
numbers of cattle and hogs depend in a large meas- 
ure upon this for their food supply. 

The Grain Trade of Chicago. Chicago's situation 
at the head of the most southwestern of the Great 
Lakes has given it great advantage in trade and 
industry. It has become the greatest railroad 




From a painting by Laurence C. Earle 

The first grain elevator in Chicago, 18 j8. The first shipment of 

grain, made that year, amounted to seventy-eight bushels. In 

I QIC Chicago shipped 22^,000,000 bushels of corn alone 

center in the world, and its ability to command a 
vast supply as well as its facility for distributing 
grain is unequaled by any city in the world. There- 
fore it is to-day the greatest grain market, the 
greatest live-stock market, and the greatest meat- 
packing center in the world. It receives annually 
nearly three hundred million bushels of grain and 
ships approximately two hundred twenty-five mil- 
lion bushels. The Chicago dealers received in 19 10 



214 The Story of Corn 

more corn than is produced in all the Atlantic 
States from Maine to Florida, and much of the 
two hundred twenty-five million bushels shipped 
from that grain center was sold to the merchants 
of those states. When we remember that in 1838 
Chicago made its first shipment of grain, and that 
the total amount was only seventy-eight bushels, 
we can have some idea of the tremendous develop- 
ment of this city which to-day is the second in size in 
America and the fourth in the world — and its won- 
derful growth has been due for the most part to the 
boundless cornfields of the West. So important has 
this grain market become that almost every hour 
in the day the telegraph or the telephone sends, to 
every part of the world, news from the Chicago 
grain market. London, Paris, Rome, Bombay, 
Sydney, Shanghai; — every large commercial center of 
the world — looks each morning for the latest news 
from Chicago, to learn the price of bread and the 
world's supply of food. 

The Center of the World's Food Supply. By 
1870 the states along the coast had ceased to produce 
their own food supply. New England was producing 
less wheat in 1870 than in 1850, and by 1890 wheat 
cultivation had practically ceased in that section of 
the country. Food had been plentiful in the South 
Atlantic States until the Civil War, and even during 
that period it was produced in sufficient quantities 
to support the home folks and supply the army in 
the field. By 1870, however, the food supply had 
been reduced about one half, and in 1890 very few 



The Granary of the World 



215 



of the Southern States were producing as much food 
as in i860. In the meantime, however, the popu- 
lation of these states had almost doubled. In the 
Middle Atlantic States the food supply was barely 
holding its own. The following table tells the story : 

Production of Wheat and Corn on the Seaboard 

Wheat 



States 


1850 


1890 


Loss OR Gain 


New England 

Middle Atlantic 

South Atlantic 


1,100,000 bu. 
35,067,000 
15,575,000 


290,000 bu. 
41,582,000 
14,000,000 


73% loss 
19% gain 
10% loss 


Corn 


States 


1850 


1890 


Loss OR Gain 


New England 

Middle Atlantic 

South Atlantic 


10,200,000 bu. 
60,348,000 
111,608,000 


6,126,000 bu. 
84,090,000 
99,700,000 


40% loss 
39% gain 
1 1 % loss 


Population 


States 


-1850 


1890 


Gain 


New ^England 

Middle Atlantic 

South Atlantic 


2,728,116 
6,573,301 

3,952,837 


4,700,745 
13,917,683 

6,653,851 


73% 

111% 

69% 



The population of the seaboard states was more 
than doubled in the period from 1850 to 1890, while 
the production of food was reduced about one half. 
Therefore, if the seaboard states had not received 
grain from the West their inhabitants might have 
starved. The total food supply of America, how- 
ever, was rapidly increasing. The grain fields of 
the great West were supplying the whole of America 
and a large part of Europe with food, and annually 
drawing millions of inhabitants from the Old World. 

Between 1850 and 1890 nearly fifteen million 



2l6 



The Story of Corn 




I I Less than 25 bu.pcr sq. wile 
V^^:M 25- to 200 bu. per sq. mile 
^%%^ 200 to 1,000 bu. per sq. mile 
^^^ J, 000 bu. per sq. mile and over 



Copyright, 191 J, by Rand McNally & Oompani) 



Map showing the production of corn in the United States in 184Q 

immigrants came to America. The following table 
shows how immigration increased by decades from 
1823 to 1910: 



Year 


Immigrants 


Year 


Immigrants 


1823.... 


6,334 


1870 


387,203 


1830.... 


23,322 


1880 


457,257 


1840. . . . 


84,066 


1890. . . . 


455,302 


1850.... 


369,986 


1900. . . . 


448,572 


i860 


150,237 


1910. . . . 


1,041,570 



The free lands and the great fields of grain had 
made the West so prosperous that a steady stream 
of settlers from Europe poured into this country. 
They filled up the cities, supplied laborers for the 
growing industries, and bought homes in the fertile 
lands of the West. And it was in the decade from 
1890 to 1900 that corn products, including all kinds 
of meats from animals fattened on corn, surpassed in 
value all the other agricultural products combined. 



CHAPTER XIV 

How THE West became the Granary of 
THE World 

Before the Days of Improved Machinery. When 
we consider the crude tools that our ancestors in 
Europe used to cultivate the land we little wonder 
that the world was frequently visited by famine. 
Plowing with a crooked stick and reaping with a 
hand sickle are certainly very inadequate means for 
providing the world with food. Improved machin- 
ery for cultivating the land was late in coming. The 
great manufactories of the East were drawing labor- 
ers from the fields, and this would have diminished 
the food supply very materially but for the opening 
up of the fertile lands of the Mississippi Valley, 
which drew several million people from the East 
and from many sections of Europe. 

Wheat could not be depended upon. It required 
nine months to grow a crop, and when it was ripe 
for harvesting it must all be gathered at once or the 
rains and storms of summer would destroy much of 
it. It had to be cut by hand. The sickle was first 
used and then came the hand scythe, but this was 
a slow process and many hands were required to 
gather the crop. The corn of the country had also 
to be gathered by hand, but Indian corn would 
thrive in any climate and soil in America. Before 

217 



2i8 The Story of Corn 

the days of improved machinery a man could culti- 
vate a few acres simply by using a crooked piece of 
iron as a hoe, and have food in plenty. The great 
prairies of the West could produce both wheat and 
corn in tremendous quantities, but the problem was 
how to harvest each with the least expense. The 
cost of getting the grain from the fields, in those days 
of slow transportation, was frequently equal to the 
market price. Settlers in the great grain country 
usually cultivated only small areas, but even then 
when laborers were scarce much grain was often 
left in the fields for the cattle and hogs to eat. 

The great changes that have taken place since 
those early days when tools were few and very crude 
would furnish material for one of the most inter- 
esting chapters in the history of America. The 
genius of man gave the steamboat and the railroad. 
These brought the West in touch with the great 
commercial centers of the world. Not only that, 
but these agencies created in the West itself some 
of the leading world centers. Other inventions 
came along with the railroad ^nd the steamboat and 
cooperated with them in making the West the 
granary of the world. The first of these was the 
reaper, used in harvesting the wheat. It is one of 
the most important inventions in the whole history 
of America, and it led the way for the invention of 
many other machines now used in harvesting corn. 

McCormick and the Reaper. Before the Revo- 
lutionary War a family of McCormicks had settled 
in a valley of Virginia, and in 1809 Cyrus Hall 



The West the Granary of the World 219 

McCormick of the third generation was born. He 
received the greater part of his training in his father's 
workshop, where farming utensils were made for the 
McCormick plantation. Much of his time, how- 
ever, was spent in the fields with his father. Here 
he discovered that reaping wheat with a sickle or 
hand scythe was no quick or easy task, and that 
swinging a wheat cradle all day under the summer 
sun was about the hardest work that had to be done 
on the farm. Cyrus's father had invented a heavy, 
' awkward machine, called a reaper. This was pushed 
by a pair of horses, and was not successful. 

Cyrus began where his father left off, and by 1831 
he was ready to try his machine. It was not until 
1834, however, that he took out his patent. 

For a few years McCormick lost money on his 
machines. The great wheat country was west of 
the mountains, and it was difficult in those days of 
slow transportation to ship his reapers to the West. 
In 1847 he decided to locate in Chicago, which at 
that time was becoming an important lake port. 
He needed money to put his machines on the mar- 
ket, and was fortunate in being able to form a co- 
partnership with William B. Ogden, who paid him 
twenty-five thousand dollars for a half interest in 
the invention. The business grew so rapidly that 
at the end of two years McCormick was able to buy 
back the half interest for fifty thousand dollars. 

The Effect of the Reaper. The reaper was a 
necessity because farm laborers were scarce and the 
wheat fields enormously productive. In fact, the 



220 The Story of Corn 

growth of the newly opened West would have been 
indefinitely retarded if man had had to cut the grain 
by hand and harvest it in the old primitive way which 
was little better than the method used by the 
Egyptians in the days of Joseph and the Pharaohs. 
The reaper was now a success, and soon made its 
appearance in the fields of Russia, Siberia, Germany, 
France, India, Australia, the Argentine country, and 
wherever wheat was cultivated. It more than 
trebled the output of grain, and made it possible 
for cheaper bread to reach the people of every civil- 
ized land. Because of this it is an invention of the 
greatest economic value to the world. 

The Threshing Machine. In the earliest times 
the grain was probably shelled by hand, but as the 
quantity increased it was beaten out with a stick 
and separated from the chaff by throwing it up in 
the air. The Egyptians and Hebrews had the cus- 
tom of spreading the loosened sheaves on the ground 
and driving oxen, sheep, and other animals round 
and round over them so as to tread out the grain. 
But the ancient nations observed that this process 
damaged the grain, so crude machines with rollers 
and spikes were invented. The first really success- 
ful machine was invented by a Scotchman in 1786, 
and it became the model for all subsequent threshers. 
With the development of the steam engine the 
threshing machine increased in usefulness and 
efficiency, and after the reaper became highly per- 
fected, the thresher and reaper were combined in one 
large machine, drawn at first by twenty horses and 



The West the Granary of the World 221 

later by a' traction engine. The two machines, now 
combined into one, can cut, thresh, and sack many 
hundred bushels a day. 

The Necessity for Machines to Harvest Corn. 
Even before the railroad entered Chicago, Indian 
corn was the chief crop of the northern Mississippi 
Valley, and long before the reaper was invented 
attempts had been made to construct a machine 
that would make the harvesting of corn much 
easier. The success of the McCormick reaper in 
harvesting wheat, oats, and other similar cereals 
caused many mechanics to turn their attention to 
working out an invention for harvesting corn. The 
amount of work that one man can do without the 
aid of machinery is limited. Hence, the extent of 
the cornfields would be limited by the number of 
hands that could be employed to cultivate and har- 
vest the grain. The amount of grain, together with 
the number of hogs, cattle, and horses, are all depend- 
ent to-day upon man's ability to make the land 
yield its best. With the aid of machinery, man's 
hands are multiplied almost indefinitely. 

The reaper came to aid man in harvesting wheat, 
oats, rye, and other such cereals, and made the 
increased production of these cereals marvelous. 
Man's working capacity had been increased a 
hundred fold. But Indian corn, the great American 
grain, that had saved the first colonists on the 
Atlantic coast, supported Daniel Boone and the first 
settlers of the prairie country, and made Chicago 
the great food market of the world, was, until a few 



222 The Story of Corn 

years ago, harvested almost exclusively by hand. 
No machine which could relieve the farmer of the 
drudgery relative to the gathering of this most 
valuable grain had been perfected. In order to 
appreciate more fully the necessity for such an 
invention, let us pause to study the methods of 
harvesting corn. 

Methods of Harvesting Corn. In most sections 
of the country where corn is one of the leading 
forage crops, it is customary to cut the stalks close 
to the ground. This is done at a time when no 
damage is effected to the ripening grain and while 
a considerable amount of the saccharine juices still 
remain in the stalk. The corn is then set up in 
shocks to cure. These shocks, varying greatly in 
size, range from six hills square (thirty-six hills to 
the shock) to sixteen hills square (two hundred 
fifty-six hills to the shock). The size depends 
usually on the variety of corn, some kinds requiring 
a longer time to cure than others. 

One common method of shocking is to tie the 
tops of four hills together as they stand and then 
cut and shock the rest around them. Another 
method is to use a frame called a *' wooden horse,'' 
or a post fixed in the ground, as a kind of support. 
In either case, great care is taken to build the shock 
closely around the support that it may not be blown 
down by heavy winds or damaged by rain. 

After the fodder has been cured, which generally 
takes about a month, the corn is usually husked by 
hand in the field. The ''stover*' — what is left after 



The West the Granary of the World 



223 





r 


i 


^ .^ 




1 


1 


fe 


w^Bmmam^smMi^mim ■■ 




M* 


^^^a?|t'W :"':•: 






^Mommm^^ 











Corn fodder in the shock 



Photograph by E. J. Hall 



the ears have been removed — is then tied in bundles 
and reshocked, and the ears thrown into a pile on the 
ground near the shock to be hauled to the barn and 
stored. Sometimes the stover is hauled to the barn, 
but it is usually left standing in shocks until needed 
for fodder. 

In some sections of the Central and Southern 
States, where the soil is rich and the growing season 
long, the corn grows so tall and large that the stalk 



224 



The Story of Corn 



does not make a good forage crop. The farmers of 
the South strip the blades by hand from these stand- 
ing stalks. This is called *' pulling fodder.'' The 
blades thus stripped and well stored furnish an 
excellent but expensive forage, for different experi- 
ment stations in the South have proved conclusively 
that the stripping of corn blades is unprofitable. 
In other sections of the country the stalk is cut 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 



A corn harvester in operation 

just above the ear. By this method the part of the 
stalk which is most readily eaten by stock is obtained 
with the least waste. Experiments have shown, how- 
ever, that it is more profitable to cut and shock the 
whole plant. In the Middle West the term ' ' fodder ' ' 
means the entire plants as ordinarily cut and shocked, 
while in many parts of the South this term is applied 
only to the blades stripped from the stalk. 



The West the Granary of the World 225 

These methods are still used throughout the 
country. It is estimated that one man can cut and 
shock by hand about one and one half acres a day. 
Although the cost per acre is not very high, still the 
amount that can be produced is limited by the 
capacity of the men employed. Machines to im- 
prove the producing capacity of one man are needed, 
and such machines are already in evidence. 

The First Machines for Harvesting Com. As 
early as 1820 attempts were made to construct a 
machine that would make it easier to harvest corn. 
From that time until 1892 all attempts to perfect 
such a machine on a large scale were unsuccessful. 
The implement first used for cutting corn was the 
hoe, but, as this was rather heavy and awkward, the 
more progressive farmers substituted com knives. 
These were usually made from scythe blades, but 
they have now given way to all sizes and shapes of 
factory -made knives. 

Many homemade harvesters of the sled pattern 
were made from time to time, the first of these 
being patented by J. C. Peterson, of West Mans- 
field, Ohio, who put one in the field in 1886. The 
illustrations given on the next page show the differ- 
ent models in use. Usually the driver rode on the 
platform, gathering the stalks in his arms to prevent 
them from falling in all directions. As this was 
very laborious, an arm was added to the machine, as 
shown in the second illustration. This collected the 
stalks on the platform, and the driver needed only to 
pick them from the sled and throw them to the ground. 



226 



The Story of Corn 




From Farmers' Bulletin No. 303, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

A homemade one-row harvester ^ 
sled pattern 



The next improvement was to mount the sled on 
wheels, as shown in the illustration on the opposite 

page. This machine 
cuts two rows at a 
time. Two men sit 
on the platform, one 
facing each row, and 
they guide the corn 
against the cutting 
edge with one hand 
while with the other 
they hold the stalks until enough have been collected 
to form a shock. This is the most satisfactory as 
well as the least expensive of all the corn-harvesting 
machines. When a large acreage is to be gone 
over during the limited time within which it is most 
profitable to cut corn, corn binders and corn shockers 
are the most economical machinery. 

Com Binders. One of the earliest forms of corn 
harvester and binder was con- 
structed as a modified form 
of the McCormick reaper. 
A machine embodying prin- 
ciples which seem destined 
to prevail in corn harvesting 
was invented by A. S. Peck of 
Geneva, Illinois, and patented 
January 5,1892. It consisted 
of a corn harvester with two 
divides passing one on each side of a row of corn. 
These cut the stalks and carried them back in a 




From Farmers' Bulletin No. 303. 
U. S. Dept. Agr. 

Improved one-row harvester y 
with arm added 



The West the Granary of the World 227 

vertical position to the binder attachment. A 
standard twine binder was used, set in a vertical 
position so as to receive the stalks and keep them 
in position until the bundle was tied. The horses 
were hitched behind the machine. Since 1895 the 
self -binding corn harvester has had a considerable 
sale, especially in the leading corn states. The 
main features of the Peck type predominate in 
practically all the corn binders now built. 




From Farmers' Bulletin No. 303, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

The two-row harvester on wheels. Two men 

sit on the platform to aid in cutting 

and gathering the stalks 

Com Shockers. The present corn shocker was 
invented in 1888 by A. N. Hadley. It is built with 
a frame mounted on two wheels, and consists of a 
device, the same as in the corn binder, for gather- 
ing the corn. It has a device that cuts the corn as 
the machine advances. Behind the cutting device 
the corn is collected, shocked, and lifted to the 
ground by means of a crane. Improvements have 
been made in this machine with the result that 
the whole operation of forming, tying, and setting 
a shock can now be done in five minutes. The 
work of only one man is required, and its cost is 



228 The Story of Corn 

about the same as that of a binder, which requires 
the driver and two or three men to follow and shock 
the corn. The shocker requires one man and three 
horses to operate the machine, which can cut and 
shock nearly five acres a day. Another machine 
known as the ''loader" has also been invented. As 
this can easily handle two shocks a minute, and can 
lift two thousand pounds, it adds greatly to the value 
of the shocker. 

Corn Pickers. In the ''corn belt'' corn is raised 
principally for the ears, which are "husked'' or 
picked by hand. For over fifty years inventors have 
been busy trying to perfect a machine to pick the 
corn from the stalk. Such a machine was invented 
in 1850, and another type in 1874. These, however, 
have not been successful. Thus far no picker has 
been constructed that will not to some extent break 
down or tear the stalk and shell the corn. 

Between 1880 and 1890 a great deal of attention 
was given to threshing corn. This led to the inven- 
tion of a combined husker and shredder, which 
takes the stalks with the ears on them, removes 
and husks the ears, and then prepares the stalks 
for feeding. 

The Plow. The most important of all agricul- 
tural operations is the breaking of the soil. When 
the prairie lands were first cultivated the settlers 
had no implements but an ax, a hoe, and a crooked 
stick. When the Erie Canal was opened and steam- 
boats were making swift voyages up and down the 
Mississippi, when the East was offering larger and 



The West the Granary of the World 



229 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

Corn husker and shredder. The machine takes the stalks^ removes 

and husks the ears, and chops up the stalks 

for cattle food 

larger prices for the food of the West, the plow in 
use in many parts of the United States was a ' ' mere 
wedge with a short beam and a crooked handle/' 
fitted with a movable share of stone, copper, or 
iron, wrought to a suitable shape. 

In July, 1 8 14, Jethro Wood of New York was 
granted a patent for a cast-iron plow having the 
mold-plate share and land side and cast in three parts. 
This plow was the original of all the plows invented 
since that time. In 1840' the first subsoil plow came 
from Scotland, but by 1850 the American plows 
had become famous for their great simplicity, 
lightness of draft, neatness, and cheapness, and were 
being sold throughout Europe. 

The crooked stick was superseded by the one- 
horse plow, and then by the two-horse plow. Here 
one laborer was dispensed with and a horse added. 



230 



The Story of Corn 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 



A sulky plow 

The two-horse plow soon changed into a sulky 
cultivator, and the laborer rode. Then came the' 
age of machinery. Within the present generation 
the steam engine has been used to pull the plow, 
some of these traction engines having a hundred 
twenty horse-power. They draw behind them as 
many as fifty plows, and turn over from seventy- 
five to ninety acres a day. It was in the fine 
prairie lands of the West that the steam plow was 
developed. In addition to the steam traction 
engine we have now the gasoline engine, and it is 
said that at least six hundred thousand of these are 
at present in use in America. 

The Grain Elevator. We have now seen the great 
changes that have taken place in cultivating and 
harvesting grain. The changes in the methods of 



The West the Granary of the World 231 

handling the grain for exportation are quite as mar- 
velous. The farmer to-day drives a wagon load of 
corn, still on the cob, to the nearest railroad siding, 
where stands what is called the receiving house or 
the first elevator. The wagon is driven into the 
building and weighed. Then the front of the wagon 
is raised by machinery and the corn slides down 
through a trap door into the shelling room, where 
it is quickly shelled. It is next tumbled — cobs, 
husks, grain, and all — into the bottom of an elevator 
leg, where it is caught up and carried to the top "of 
the building. In a small elevator the leg will carry 
up a thousand bushels an hour. On reaching the 
top floor the grain is separated from the cobs, 
trash, and dust, and poured into the bins. A freight 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

A forty-five horse-power tractor pulling ten fourteen-inch plows. 

The largest tractors haul as many as fifty plows, 

turning ninety acres a day 

car is then backed under the spout of the bin and 
the grain poured into it until it is full. The corn is 



2^2 The Story of Corn 

usually bound .for Chicago, and soon the car falls in 
with thousands of others just like it, all bound first 
for Chicago and probably later for Europe. 

The first elevator at the railroad station is compar- 
atively small, many being about twenty by twenty- 
four feet, but about forty-five feet high in order 
to load the grain on the cars easily. At Chicago, 
the car is switched into a tremendous elevator that 
will hold as much as two million bushels. The 
door is pushed back, and a power shovel pulled into 
the car. This has a shovehng capacity of about 
thirty thousand bushels a day, and empties the car 
in a short time. Again the grain is run up the ele- 
vator boot. It is then tested and graded, and turned 
into small bins, where it is piled sometimes sixty feet 
high. The grain is now ready to be distributed to 
any part of America or of the world. If it is to be 
shipped to the Southern States, another car is 
pushed under the bin and is loaded within a few 
minutes; if it is bound for Europe, a grain boat 
draws up alongside the elevator, the bin is opened, 
and the grain poured into the hold until it is 
loaded. 

Such is the method of handling the grain of the 
West. Thousands of elevators are distributed all 
over the corn country, the largest, of course, being 
found in the largest cities and along the lake coast 
from Buffalo to Chicago. The statement that one 
of the largest elevators will hold two million bushels 
of corn can be appreciated only by making a com- 
parison. Seventeen of these elevators could hold all 



The West the Granary of the World 



233 



the corn raised in North Carolina, and three of them 

all the corn produced in the six New England States. 

How the West became the Granary of the World. 

We are now beginning to see the forces that have 
been at work changing the Northwest into the 
world's great food center. The steamboat, the 
canal, the railroad, and the steam engine provided 
means for moving the grain from the fields. The 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

Sulky cultivators at work in the Fox River Valley ^ Illinois 

improvements made in the plow and the coming of 
the traction engine made it possible for one man 
to cultivate vast areas of land. The reaper, the 
thresher, and the corn-harvesting machinery made 
it easy to harvest the grain, and the elevator so 
reduced the cost of handling it that other countries 
are not even able to compete with this section. 
What a change has taken place since the settlers 



The West the Granary of the World 235 

of America cultivated the land with a crooked stick 
and complained against the introduction of the plow 
because of the idea held in those days that iron 
poisoned the soil ! What a mighty transformation 
has taken place in the business and trade of the 
world since trains of pack horses carried hides and 
furs to the cities of the Eastern States, and since grain 
rotted in the fields of the West while hundreds of 
people in the East actually suffered for bread ! 

The writers of history crowd into many volumes 
the names and deeds of men of valor who have led 
armies, sacked cities, and put the inhabitants to 
the sword. They tell also of wise legislators who 
have adjusted the written law to the needs of the 
people. But the inventors of modern machinery 
and the recent students of the soil have probably 
wrought more wonderful changes in the world's 
history within the last century and a half than all 
the generals and lawgivers from Abraham's day to 
the birth of George Washington. 



CHAPTER XV 

The Last American Frontiers 

The Last of the Prairie Lands. We have seen the 
value to the new nation of the frontiers and the free 
lands of the West. We have seen settlers come to 
the eastern shores, and, following the rivers, push 
westward into the interior. We have seen colonists 
cross the mountains, and, as a result, England go to 
war with France and take the lands west of the 
mountains. We have seen settlers under Daniel 
Boone cross over into the blue-grass region and take 
possession of the great Mississippi Valley. We have 
seen many millions of people come from Europe, 
and, joining millions more from the Atlantic Coast 
States, journey westward across the Mississippi 
into the valleys of the Missouri and the Platte. 
Westward this mighty stream of homeseekers 
flowed. It poured through the mountain passes 
and appropriated the land along the Pacific coast. 
However, when settlers reached the Rocky Moun- 
tains they had no such difficulty in crossing them 
and taking possession of the lands beyond as 
Daniel Boone and his followers had in crossing 
the Appalachian ridge a hundred years before. 

The United States is a large country, but home- 
seekers may travel to-day from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific in less time than it took Daniel Boone to go 

236 



The Last American Frontiers 



237 



from North Carolina to Kentucky. Cheap land may- 
be found in almost every state, for often the owner 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Buffalo in Yellowstone National Park, Of the vast herds that once 
roamed our plains, less than one thousand now remain, care- 
fully protected in our parks and zoological gardens 

is ignorant of its value, or unable to make it yield 
abundantly. But there is now very little free land 
such as was plentiful in the Mississippi Valley a half 
century ago. Even the great grassy plains of little 
rain are no longer the home of the cowboy and the 
buffalo, for the great American desert has been occu- 
pied, and irrigation is making it blossom like the gar- 
dens of the East. Rich land will never again be so 
cheap in America, and the owners of such land who 
cannot make it increase, or even maintain, its fertility 
stand in the way of the world's progress to-day. 



238 



The Story of Corn 



Movement of Population. We have seen how 
eagerness for free lands sent settlers west by the 
million ; how in the thirties and forties the thirteen 
original states along the Atlantic gave up their inhab- 
itants and almost ceased to grow; while the West 
was drawing many of its best citizens from the East 
and from almost every civilized nation of Europe. 
But the last two decades begin to tell a different tale. 

Settlers always move in the direction of cheap 
land. If land is free, the rush of settlers in that 
direction is generally great. The land of the north- 
ern Mississippi Valley has practically all been taken 
up and is so valuable to-day that only those with 
wealth can purchase it. Homeseekers have had to 
move on farther and farther west until the Pacific 
coast has been reached. In the last decade many 
of the northern states of the Great Central Plain 
have almost ceased to grow. Indeed, Iowa has lost 
in population, and Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, 
and Wisconsin have grown but very little. Not a 
state of the great grain region of the corn country, 
except the Dakotas, has kept pace with the average 
growth of the United States from 1900 to 19 10, as 
this table shows. 



Growth in Population from 1900 to 191 o 



State 


PerCent 


State 


Percent 


Ohio 


14-7 

7-3 
16.9 
16. 1 

12.8 

18.5 

0.3 


Missouri 


6.0 


Indiana 

IlHnois 

Michigan 

Wisconsin 

Minnesota 


Nebraska 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 

North Dakota 

South Dakota 


II. 8 

15 

6.6 

8.1 

80.8 


Iowa (lost) 


45-4 



The Last American Frontiers 



239 



The United States as a whole increased twenty-one 
per cent in population. 

How the Far West is dependent upon the Corn 
Country. The great gain in population during the 
last decade has been in the Rocky Mountain and 
Pacific Coast States, as the following table shows: 



Gain in Population, and Production of Corn and 


Wheat per Inhabitant in 19 


[Q 


State 


Per Cent 


Corn in Bushels 


Wheat in Bushels 


Montana 


54-5 


less than i 


20 


Idaho 


IOI.3 


less than i 


32 


Wyoming 


57-7 


less than 2 


10 


Colorado 


48.0 


less than 7 


II 


New Mexico 


67.6 
66.2 


less than 4 
less than 2 


2i 


Arizona 


3 


Utah 


34-9 


less than i 


12 


Nevada 


93-4 


less than i 


10 


Washington 


120.4 


less than i 


31 


Oregon 


62.7 


less than i 


23 


CaUfornia 


60. 1 


less than i 


3 



These states, however, do not produce their own 
bread. They barely average a bushel of corn to 
the inhabitant. Of wheat, Washington, Oregon, 
Montana, and Idaho raise a surplus, but the other 
states do not produce even sufficient for their own 
population. This is the great stock country of 
America. We have already referred to sections of 
it as the land of little rain. In that vast region from 
the Missouri River westward the lofty plateaus 
furnish a great grazing country, about one third the 
total area of the United States. This region fur- 
nishes most of the young cattle which are later 
shipped into the corn country to be fattened and 
prepared for market. Half -wild horses roam the 
plains; sheep raising is one of the chief industries. 



240 



The Story of Corn 



But it is easy to see that these states lie beyond 
the great corn belt, and that both men and animals 




West of the Missouri River the lofty plateaus furnish a great 

grazing country, largely given over to cattle, horses, and sheep^ 

and therefore to a certain extent dependent upon the 

corn country of the Mississippi Valley 

must depend to a certain extent upon the corn of the 
upper Mississippi Valley. 

The population of the United States increased 
twenty-one per cent between 1900 and 1910. The 
great problem confronting America to-day is how 
to make the land produce an ever-increasing amount 
of corn and wheat to furnish bread for the growing 
population and to supply beef, pork, and horses 
sufficient for the needs of the people. We have 
come into an era of study of the soil, experimental 
work in agriculture, and reforms in education. 

Improvements in Agriculture. It was clear to 
George Washington while he was President that the 



The Last American Frontiers 



241 




From Professional Paper No. 37, U. S. Geol. Survey 

An abandoned hillside in North Carolina eroded or worn away 
by the action of rain 

longer the land was cultivated the poorer it became, 
and that the richest lands were the new fields just 
cleared of forests, The richest lands in the past 



24-2 ' The Story of Corn 

have been near the frontiers. As the old lands 
''wore out" they were abandoned and new lands 
cleared. The long stretches of old-field pine and the 
washed-away hillsides to be seen in the East as well 
as the South tell the story of man's inability in the 
past to make the land increase in fertility. 

Washington was himself a careful farmer and 
wiser than most men in his generation, and he 
repeatedly called attention to these things. As 
early as 1785 agricultural societies were established 
in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, for even then 
food was beginning to grow scarce in some sections 
of the East. It was natural that the first agri- 
cultural schools should be established in the East, 
and that the founder of all the land-grant agricultural 
colleges should come from Vermont. Senator Justin 
Morrill, of that state, in 1862 induced Congress to 
pass a law allowing to each state thirty thousand 
acres of public lands, for each representative in 
Congress, to be used in support of agricultural and 
mechanical colleges. In this way the western lands 
that were drawing the population of the East from 
the worn-out farms along the seaboard were at last 
contributing some of their wealth toward rebuilding 
the East. 

It was the great corn country, however, that made 
agriculture a science. Here improved machinery 
was first used and the first agricultural college was 
established (1857). Here an intelligent attempt 
was first made to avoid the mistakes of the East, 
and to save the land from being worn out. It was 



The Last American Frontiers 



243 



a western man, Representative Hatch, of Missouri, 
who was instrumental in pushing through Congress 




Photograph by H. D. Ayer 

A class at the Minnesota School of Agriculture learning to judge 
corn for its growing qualities and food values 

in 1887 another bill appropriating the proceeds of 
western public lands to establish experiment stations 
in every state of the Union. Thus the western lands 
contributed to the building up of the lands in the 
older states. 

Population increasing faster than Corn Production. 
The following table shows the total grain production 
by decades from 1880 to 1910, and the yield per acre 
for the whole United States. It will be observed 
that considerably less corn was produced in 1890 
than in 1880, although there were twelve million 
more people to feed. It was near the end of this 
decade that experimental stations to study the land 



244 



The Story of Corn 



were established in every state of the Union. Since 
1890 the work of the agricultural colleges and 
experiment stations has brought about more inten- 
sive farming, resulting in an increased food supply. 
However, even the very large corn crop of 19 10 did 
not give as much per capita as did the yield of 1880. 

Corn Production by Decades 



Year 


Population 


Corn in Bushels 


Per Capita Yield 
IN Bushels 


1880 
1890 
1900 
1910 


50,155,783 
62,947,714 

75,994,575 
91,972,266 


1,717,435,000 
1,489,970,000 
2,105,103,000 
2,886,260,000 


34-2 

23.6 

27.7 
31.4 



When our first census was taken in 1790 only four 
per cent of the people lived in cities. In 1850 about 
a third of the population lived in cities, while 
approximately two thirds of the people were produc- 
ing food for themselves and the other one third. In 
1 910 only a third of the population remained in the 
country, and upon this one third falls the duty of 
producing enough surplus foodstuff to feed the entire 
population of America. No wonder farming has 
become a profitable occupation within* the last ten 
years, and no wonder the whole nation has turned 
its attention to the improvement of the soil. 

The Value of Corn in the World's Commerce. 
We have already seen that before the days of the 
railroad a large portion of the grain of the West was 
converted into cattle and hogs and sold chiefly in 
eastern markets. After 1850, we find meat products 
forming a greater and still greater part of the 
exports. In 1877 the export of grain and meat was 



The Last American Frontiers 245 

more valuable than the cotton exported, and in 1893 
the corn and meat exports alone were equal in value 
to the cotton. 

If we consider the meat derived from cattle and 
hogs as products of corn, the export value of this 
one grain in 1893 was about one hundred eighty- 
five million dollars, while that of cotton was about 
one hundred eighty-eight million dollars. In 1898 
the export value of the corn products was about 
two hundred eighty million dollars, while that of 
cotton was only two hundred thirty million dollars. 
In 1 90 1 the corn products reached the enormous 
sum of five hundred eighty-five million dollars, 
while cotton stood at only three hundred thirteen 
million dollars. This was the highest export value 
ever reached by American corn in the commerce of 
the world. Prom that time its export value has 
decreased, while that of cotton has been on the 
increase. In 191 1 the corn and meat exported 
barely reached the value of two hundred million 
•dollars, less than half the valuation in 1901. 

The use of corn as a food for man and beast, and 
the increasing demand for products derived from 
corn, have caused its price at home to increase more 
than a hundred per cent within the past ten years. 
Therefore, the profits in corn at home are becoming 
so great that the surplus to be exported is growing 
less annually. 

Other Food Centers develop. America taught 
Europe the value of Indian corn, but has been 
unable to supply the demand created. Europe 



246 The Story of Corn 

must have Indian corn, however, for England, 
Belgium, Germany, France, Holland, Denmark, 
Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, and 
the Balkan States have come to depend upon this 
grain. We have already seen that America in 1910 
was exporting considerably less foodstuff than in 
1900. Yet in 1909 Europe imported nearly two 
hundred million bushels of Indian corn alone. 
Where did it come from? 

In 1 88 1 a new river valley was opened. It was 
not in North America, but in South America. 
Suppose you study the geography of the Argentine 
Republic. The climate of that great nation cor- 
responds to the climate of the United States from 
Mexico to Hudson Bay. Buenos Aires, its capital, 
has the same latitude in the south temperate 
zone as Memphis, Tennessee, in the north temper- 
ate zone. In this section of South America three 
great rivers coming together form the La Plata 
system, and it is this great river valley that is 
now supplying the larger part of the corn imported 
into European countries. In 1878 the production 
of foodstuff in the Argentine was insufficient for 
even its scattered inhabitants. Three years later 
the lands were thrown open to European settlers, 
and during the past ten years the export of wheat 
and corn has been considerable. The land yields 
only about twelve bushels of corn to the acre, an 
evidence that agriculture in the Argentine is not 
far advanced as a science. Although only a very 
small part of this great river valley is as yet under 



The Last American Frontiers 



247 



1 




■^^ 


'\ 


i. 


^^^^^^^I^^hh 


I 


hf^^^ 


s 


^p^ -* 









After Plate VII, Report No. 75, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

Loading grain ships, Argentina , by means of a permanent chute 
or canalita, built out from the high banks along the shore 

cultivation, about half of the corn imported into the 
European countries in 1909 came from the Argentine 
alone-. 

In 191 1 Sir Thomas Price, of London, made a 
report to Parliament on the storage and handling 
of grain in Europe, the United States, and Canada. 
England, it must be remembered, is a manufacturing 
nation, and its food ^supply must come from abroad. 
The first question that Sir Thomas Price was asked 
to report on was, Can South Africa grow Indian 
corn, and what advantage does the South African 
grower possess over his competitors? His answer 
to this question is as follows : ' ' It is pleasant to hear 
the uniform testimony in every country visited — 
Great Britain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, France, 



248 The Story of Corn 

and Italy — as to the excellence, as a rule, of South 
African maize in comparison with the maize received 
from other countries .... I was assured that 
twenty times the quantity, and even, more, than 
South Africa at present exports would find a ready 
market .... The advantages which the South 
African maize producer possesses that call for 
special mention are: (i) the good quality that can 
be grown; (2) the good climate; (3) the low per 
cent of moisture (in the grain) ; (4) the good reputa- 
tion established by careful and impartial govern- 
ment grading; (5) less cost of land; and (6) the 
preference for colonial maize." 

Thus we see that new corn lands are being opened 
in South America and South Africa, and the center 
of the world's food supply may pass to one of these 
continents. We are already importing, according 
to the report of 191 1, about fifteen million dollars 
worth of foodstuff, which is about six times as 
much as we imported in 1901. This includes corn, 
wheat, flour, meat, and dairy products. While the 
total is small for so large a country as the United 
States, it has been gradually increasing during the 
past ten years; and at the same time the price of 
foodstuff has been gradually increasing. 

The Nation's Problem. Although corn is cul- 
tivated in every state of the union, two thirds of the 
total amount produced in America is raised in the 
seven states, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, 
Ohio, Nebraska, and Kansas, with Illinois and Iowa 
as the leading states. As these Western States could 



The Last American Frontiers 



249 



produce this cereal so abundantly, the states on the 
Atlantic coast to some extent lost interest in its 
cultivation, preferring to devote their labor to the 
cultivation of other crops and exchange with the 
farmers of the West. In the New England States 
farming even declined, and the emphasis was placed 
on manufacturing. Thus, after the development of 
the steamboat, the railroad, and the cotton factory, 
and the invention of the reaper and other labor- 
saving devices, the states along the Atlantic coast 
became dependent upon the West for their food. 
With the production of corn centralized in a few 
states, unfavorable weather conditions were likely to 




Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. N. Y. 

One of the great corn fields on the plains of eastern Kansas 



250 



The Story of Corn 




Copyright, 1915, hy Rand ilcNaUy <fc Qom^ant/ 

The production of corn in the United States 

diminish the yield considerably in any one year and 
endanger the food supply of America. Such unfavor- 
able weather conditions did prevail in 1909, and the 
per capita production of that year fell far below the 
average, the yield per acre being even lower than 
that for 1880. Yet since 1880 we have been looking 
to this section to supply the seaboard and Europe 
with com. By 1900 the production in America was 
not keeping pace with the demands of a growing 
population. The nation had no longer such vast 
areas of rich lands in newly formed states. But as 
population increased the supply of corn must increase. 
Where should this increasing supply come from? 

The Nation turned to the South. Back to the 
Atlantic seaboard where the first Jamestown colony 
had cleared the land and planted the first cornfields 
the word was carried. South Carolina and Georgia 



The Last American Frontiers 251 

were then producing only ten bushels to the acre, 
Alabama thirteen, Mississippi fifteen, North Carolina 
seventeen, and Louisiana nineteen bushels. The 
states that had produced an abundance of food in 
i860 had been impoverished by the Civil War. At 
the close of that great strife they strove to regain 
their wealth by the production of cotton. At that 
time cotton was high and food cheap in the West. 
But in the nineties, when the price of cotton went 
down to the bare cost of production, the South had 
little money with which to buy food. Many farmers 
were facing financial ruin. 

The nation said of the South, ''This section of 
the country is being impoverished because it does 
not produce its own food supply.'' Experiment 
stations, agricultural colleges, and the teaching of 
agriculture in the schools were beginning to produce 
their effect when the national Department of Agri- 
culture turned' its attention to the South. Then 
began the corn-club movement which is known in 
every state where corn is cultivated. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Farmers' Demonstration Work and the Corn- 
Club Movement 

The Problem. It became quite evident when the 
last prairie state was settled and the population was 
pouring into the grassy plains beyond the corn belt 
that the center of the food supply could not move 
much farther westward. As the population con- 
tinued to increase faster than the increase in the 
production of corn, it became evident that more land 
must be devoted to raising food, and that the old 
lands must be made more productive. But where 
were more lands to be found? 

The South was largely an agricultural section, 
and in 1910 nearly half of the farming population 
of the United States lived in the sixteen Southern 
States. This half of the farming population was 
living on land that was not producing as much food 
in 1890 as it had been in 1850, though the population 
had nearly doubled. Some of the Southern States 
were producing an average of only ten bushels of 
corn to the acre. The best lands of the southern 
coastal plain were planted in cotton; but even the 
corn lands of the piedmont sections were decreasing 
in fertility. It was evident to the national Depart- 
ment of Agriculture that if the South could pro- 
duce its own food supply it would add at least five 

252 



Farmers' Demonstration Work 253 

hundred million bushels of com annually to the 
nation's wealth. 

Cotton was still king in the South. In the pied- 
mont sections of the Southern States the cotton 
factory was drawing the laborers from the farms, 
and thousands of tenants and many landowners 
gave up their land and sought employment in the 
factory for themselves and their wives and children. 
The best agricultural skill was devoted to raising 
cotton or tobacco, while the corn in many sections 
was carelessly planted and indifferently cultivated. 
As a result the South was not producing more than 
half its food, and was buying the remainder from 
the fields of the West. When the price of cotton 
dropped, in 1897, to less than five cents a pound, it 
was a heavy burden that fell on the South, and the 
problem, how could the South grow its own food 
supply and at the same time raise sufficient cotton 
for the world's need, was fairly presented. This 
question was answered largely by one man, who has 
been called the * ' Missionary Bishop of American 
Agriculture. ' ' His work has been referred to as ' ' the 
greatest single piece of constructive educational 
work in this or any age." 

Seaman A. Knapp. While the South was engaged 
in one of the most destructive wars of the eighteenth 
century, a war which was to break up the old 
plantation system and entirely change the methods 
of cultivating the land, a young man from New 
York State, following the westward migration, moved 
into the new state of Iowa. This young man was 



254 



The Story of Corn 



Seaman A. Knapp. He was born in Essex County, 
New York, December i6, 1833. It was his purpose 

to become a 
teacher, and 
after graduating 
from Union Col- 
lege, Schenec- 
tady, New York, 
he entered his 
chosen profes- 
sion. But fail- 
ing health caused 
him to change 
his plan, and in 
1865 he took the 
advice of Horace 
Greeley, so often 
given to young 
men of that day, 
"Go West, 
with the country.'* 




From States Relation Service, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

Dr, Seaman A. Knapp, the ''Missionary 
Bishop of American Agriculture " 



young man, and grow up 

He went to Vinton, Iowa, at the age of thirty-two, 
and settled on a farm, where he learned how to 
produce corn and to breed successfully Shorthorn 
cattle and Berkshire hogs. He introduced heavy 
draft horses to his community and helped to organize 
the first live-stock association in the state. He 
experimented with improved machinery and labor- 
saving devices, and proved the value of seed selection 
in increasing the yield of corn. A few years after 
he settled in Iowa he met another farmer named 



Farmers' Demonstration Work 255 

James Wilson, who afterwards became the Secretary 
of Agriculture of the United States, and together 
they led the movement for agricultural reform in 
their state. Dr. Knapp organized and edited The 
Western Stock Journal and Farm, and later became 
professor of agriculture, and finally president, of the 
Iowa State College. But again his health failed, 
and he was forced to give up college work. 

This time he turned his face to the South. After 
organizing a great development company, he bought 
for it a million acres of land in southwestern Louisi- 
ana, and sent the following invitation all over the 
Northwest: ''Come South, young man, and grow 
up with the country." In Louisiana and Texas he 
conducted demonstrations in rice growing and 
diversified farming for the benefit of native farmers 
and immigrants. In 1898 his old friend James 
Wilson, having become Secretary of Agriculture, 
selected Dr. Knapp to visit China, Japan, and the 
Philippines to make investigation in rice growing. 
Four years later he was again sent to the Orient 
and to Europe to study agricultural methods. 

Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work. In 
1902, while Dr. Knapp was studying farm conditions 
and agricultural methods abroad, the Mexican boll 
weevil appeared in Texas. Its ravages were so 
severe that many people thought Texas would soon 
cease to be a great cotton-producing state. Tenant 
farmers abandoned their growing crops; owners in 
many places were disheartened ; most direful results 
were prophesied; and a condition of fear and panic 



2j6 The Story of Corn 

hovered over the boll weevil territory. In 1903, 
Secretary Wilson sent Dr. Knapp to Texas to study 
this boll weevil section. His first work was to 
organize the farmers of the community. This 
organization, begun in such a small way, is known 
to-day as the Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration 
Work, and is the greatest agricultural force in the 
South. 

The demonstration work began on a small farm 
near Terrell, Texas, where neighboring farmers met 
Dr. Knapp in field meetings. At the close of the 
year he had proved to them that cotton could be 
grown in spite of the boll weevil. So successful 
was his work that he was urged to extend his methods 
throughout the whole country devastated by the 
pest. The next year, having at his disposal funds 
furnished by Congress and local business men, he 
appointed a few agents and began to organize differ- 
ent counties in Texas. The work soon attracted the 
attention of the entire country. Congress enlarged 
its appropriation, local aid was increased, and the 
work was extended into Louisiana and Mississippi. 

In fighting the boll weevil Dr. Knapp taught the 
farmers the value of crop rotation, careful seed 
selection, and proper planting and plowing. New 
methods of farming were the result. A larger yield 
of corn due to crop rotation came from every section 
that Dr. Knapp visited. The boll weevil spread 
from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi into Okla- 
homa, Arkansas, and Alabama. But Dr. Knapp 
was greater than the weevil, and soon many planters 



Farmers' Demonstration Work 



257 



in the states which the boll weevil had entered pro- 
duced not only more cotton but also more food- 
stuffs than before. In a few years this great work 
had covered the entire South, had employed a force 
of a thousand agents, and had an enrollment of a 
hundred thousand farmers, besides seventy-five 



|f.^Si.l^ttBI 




I^SJ>-jfe;-f 


fiBgKflBMj 


'^B ^^^-^-"-^ 




""^^s; 't i^'^'^^i^B 


^^pif 


BvPN^^^^^^^^iM^HI^K^^H! 




^ 


^m^ 


^ 


P^^^J, 


^^^^^^k^S^^ ^"^^^y 



From States Relation Service, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

^^ Seed corn day^ The farmers have brought their best ears to the 

demonstration agent, who will instruct them in selecting 

ears for next yearns planting 

thousand boys in the corn clubs and twenty-five 
thousand girls in the canning clubs. 

The old plantations of the South were beginning 
to take on a new life. Those worn-out lands that 
had first raised corn for the pioneers, before the 
West was opened, now felt the touch of a master, 
and a new era was dawning in the South. Every 
state began to show an increase in the average corn 



258 



The Story of^Corn 



production per acre, and every state was learning 
this lesson which Dr. Knapp taught wherever he 
went — that it is the business of the farmer first to 
make his living on the farm, and that it is false 
economy to raise only a money crop and then expect 
to buy corn in a distant state. He taught the 
southern farmer not only how to raise cotton and 

corn but also how to 
find out the cost of 
his crop and whether 
he was making or 
losing money. He 
said, ''Agriculture 
may be divided into 
eight parts; one 
eighth is science, 
three eighths is art, 
and four eighths is 
business manage- 
ment." Dr. Knapp 
discussed the eco- 
nomics of the situa- 
tion with merchants 
and bankers. He showed them that the successful 
farmer is not a one-crop man — that to make his farm 
pay he should not only raise corn and live stock, 
but should grow crops of cotton which would bring 
him in ready money. Then he would be able to 
purchase not merely the bare necessities of life, as 
heretofore, but also the things that make for com- 
fort and even for luxury, 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

Florida corn. The result of new 
methods in farming 



Farmers' Demonstration Work 2jg 

Boys' Corn Clubs. In the course of his work Dr. 
Knapp saw that it was an easy matter to interest the 
schoolboys of the South in practical agriculture. He 
learned that Mr. W. H. Smith, then Superintendent 
of Public Education in Holmes County, Mississippi, 
had in 1907 organized the schoolboys of that county 
into corn clubs, and that they were already making 
some remarkable demonstrations in corn production. 
This idea of the corn clubs for schoolboys had its 
beginning several years before this in the North- 
west, but when the idea was introduced into the 
South the effect was at once noticeable. Super- 
intendent Smith was having each boy cultivate an 
acre of land at home under his direction. The 
remarkable showing made by these boys gave Dr. 
Knapp an idea, and during the next year corn clubs 
were organized in several counties of Mississippi. 
The first efforts to enlist the boys of the public 
schools were so successful that in 1909 Dr. Knapp 
began a systematic effort to organize a few counties 
in every southern state. During that year 10,543 
boys were enrolled. In the next year nearly fifty 
thousand boys joined the clubs. 

One South Carolina boy, Jerry Moore, following 
Dr. Knapp's instructions, astounded not only the 
South but the nation and even the world by his 
marvelous record. He produced 228! bushels of 
corn on one acre, and this was in a state whose 
average yield to the acre in 1880 had been only 
ten bushels, although the average for the United 
States was twenty-eight bushels in 1880 and twenty- 



26o 



The Story of Corn 



seven in 1910. When these two amounts, 228! 
and ten, are placed side by side, and it is really 




From Bulletin "A"-75. U. S. Dept. Agr. 

Jerry Moore^ the fifteen-year-old South Carolina hoy who in 

iQio set the world's record by raising 228 ^ bushels 

of corn on one acre 

understood that they represent the production 
of two acres of ordinary land in the same state 
before and after Dr. Knapp's magic touch, it is 
easy to see what his work in the South meant. 
This was perhaps the greatest yield of foodstuff 
to the acre that the world had ever seen. Many 
farmers of the South did not produce that amount 
on twenty-five acres of land. Through the boys* 
corn clubs the South learned the astounding truth 
that one acre of land, well cultivated under favorable 
conditions, will yield corn enough both for the use 
of a whole family for an entire year and for the feed 
of a horse, cows, hogs, and poultry. 



Farmers' Demonstration Work 261 

In 191 1, when Dr. Knapp died, the corn clubs had 
extended into every southern state and many other 
states of the Union. 

In that year sixty thousand boys of the South 
entered the contest conducted by the corn clubs. 
Although the weather conditions were not favor- 
able, as in the past years the records made by 
the boys were none the less remarkable. The fol- 
lowing account shows what some of these boys 
accomplished. 

The Remarkable Results. The national Depart- 
ment of Agriculture report says: ''Perhaps there 
have never been three better records than those of 
Junius Hill, Bennie Beeson, and Ben Leath. Junius 
Hill produced 212^ bushels at 8.6 cents per bushel; 
Bennie Beeson, 227x6 at 14 cents per bushel; and 
Ben Leath, 2144 bushels at 14.2 cents. ... It 
is noteworthy, also, that hundreds of other boys in 
the corn clubs throughout the South did nearly as 
well. . . . The following facts will give some 
idea of the records made : Fifty-two boys in Georgia 
received diplomas, signed by the governor and other 
officials, for producing more than 100 bushels per 
acre apiece at an average cost of less than 30 cents 
per bushel; 21 Georgia club members from the 
seventh congressional district alone grew 2,641 
bushels at an average cost of 23 cents per bushel; 
19 boys in Gordon County, Georgia, averaged 90 
bushels, 10 of them making 1,058 bushels. The 
10 boys who stood highest in' Georgia averaged 169.9 
bushels and made a net profit of over $100 each, 



262 The Story of Corn 

besides prizes won. In Alabama 100 boys averaged 
97 bushels at an average cost of 27 cents. In Mon- 
roe County, Alabama, 25 boys averaged 78 bushels. 
In Yazoo County, Mississippi, 21 boys averaged 
116 bushels at an average cost of 19.7 cents. In 
Lee County, Mississippi, 17 boys averaged 82 bush- 
els at an average cost of 21 cents. Sixty-five boys 
in Mississippi averaged 109.9 bushels at an average 
cost of 25 cents. Twenty Mississippi boys averaged 
140.6 bushels at an average cost of 23 cents. Ninety- 
two boys in Louisiana grew 5,791 bushels on 92 
acres; 10 of these boys went above 100 bushels, 
although the weather conditions were very unfavor- 
able in that state. In North Carolina 100 boys 
averaged 99 bushels. In the same state 432 boys 
averaged 63 bushels. In Buncombe County, North 
Carolina, 10 boys averaged 88 bushels. In Sussex 
County, Virginia, 16 boys averaged 82 bushels. 
Fifteen boys in the state of Tennessee produced 
127 bushels each to the acre.'* 

Suppose we compare these results with the average 
production in the same states: Alabama, nineteen 
bushels; Georgia, fifteen; Mississippi, twenty-one; 
Louisiana, thirty; North Carolina, nineteen; Vir- 
ginia, twenty-nine; and Tennessee, twenty-six. 

In 1890 the South produced barely one fifth of the 
corn of the country. In 191 2 it was producing over 
one third. The power that this increased corn pro- 
duction gives the Southern States is manifest. In 
addition to producing the world's supply of cotton 
the South is learning from the teaching of -Dr. Knapp 



Farmers' Demonstration Work 



263 



and others engaged in the demonstration work to 
produce its own breadstuff, meats, dairy products. 




From States Relation Service, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

A field meeting of corn-club members for the purpose of 
selecting corn for seed 

and domestic animals of all kinds. However, the 
South still buys annually three niillion bushels of 
foodstuff from the West. 

How the Corn Clubs were Organized. The 
national Department of Agriculture, with the 
assistance of the General Education Board, has 
placed in each state a director of corn clubs whose 
business it is to organize clubs, instruct the boys, and 
supervise the planting and harvesting of the grain. 

In many of the Southern States the corn clubs 
have become a regular part of the public-school 
system. In order to keep the boys interested, 



264 



The Story 0} Corn 



valuable prizes of various kinds are offered. These 
as a rule come from the citizens of the section in 




From States Relation Service, U. S. Depi. Agr. 

Southern corn-club prize ivinners at Washington, B.C. Each boy 
was awarded a diploma of merit by the Secretary of Agriculture 

which the club is located. For example, one 
thousand dollars in gold was offered in Oklahoma 
to the one hundred twenty boys making the best 
records in the state, and in every county throughout 
the South where clubs were organized, merchants, 
farmers, manufacturers, and school teachers offered 
prizes to the boys, sometimes in money and some- 
times in improved stock. The National Corn Club 
gave the most successful contestant in each state a 
trip to Washington. 



Farmers' Demonstration -Work 265 

The visit to Washington was worth much to the 
boys and to the com-club movement. The boys 
spent a whole week at the capital. They were shov/n 
Mount Vernon, the government buildings, and 
other points of interest. They were received at the 
White House by President Taft, who talked with 
them about their work in the clubs. Before leaving 
for home they were entertained by Mr. Wilson, 
Secretary of Agriculture, who awarded to each a 
diploma bearing the seal of the Department and the 
signature of the Secretary. In nearly all the 
Southern States diplomas signed by the governor 
and the state superintendent of public instruction 
are given to the boys who make as much as seventy- 
five bushels per acre at a reasonable cost of produc- 
tion. Prizes worth more than forty thousand 
dollars were offered in the six hundred counties 
organized, but those most valued were the diplomas 
issued by the Secretary of Agriculture and by the 
governors of the different states. 

Result of the Farm Demonstration Work. The 
one great lesson derived from the farm demonstra- 
tion work in the South was proof that the Southern 
States are well adapted to the production of corn 
and that the southern farmer can and should grow 
enough corn for every possible need of*the farm. 
The work of the boys' corn clubs has proved that it 
is more profitable in the South to produce corn and 
meat than to buy these absolutely necessary foods, 
even with cotton selling at fifteen cents a pound. 

It has been demonstrated, furthermore, that the 



266 The Story of Corn 

low yield of corn in the South is due largely to the 
lack of care in selecting seed and preparing seed beds 




From States Relation Service. U. S. Dept. Agr. 

Boys^ Corn- Club Exhibit at the state fair, Richmond , Va, 

before planting. The prizes offered were merely 
for the purpose of arousing and maintaining interest, 
while efforts were made to instruct the boys in the 
following points of farming: deep fall plowing, 
pulverization of the soil, careful seed selection, 
suitable fertilizer, intensive cultivation, increase of 
humus, economical use of more horse power and 
better implements, and the keeping of farm accounts. 
Corn is a semi-tropical plant, and, other things 
being equal, it should thrive better in the Southern 
States than in the Northern States. As we have 



Farmers' Demonstration Work 267 

seen in a previous chapter, the South falls far be- 
hind every other section of the country where any 
serious attempt is made to cultivate this grain. 
Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated that with 
proper preparation and cultivation as much corn to 
the acre can be produced in the South as has been 
grown heretofore in the corn belt. 

Business Management. Years ago commercial 
schools were established throughout the world for 
the purpose of training the banker, the merchant, 
or any other business man engaged in commercial 
and trading pursuits, in the art of business manage- 
ment peculiar to his occupation. Each particular 
business has a fairly accurate method of keeping 
accounts of the buying and selling, of the profits 
and losses, of the wastes and checks, and from 
these accounts one is able to tell whether the busi- 
ness is gaining or losing. Within recent years the 
leading universities of the corn country have estab- 
lished departments which give instruction in the art 
of business management of the farm. Dr. Knapp 
taught the South that good business management 
is responsible for about half the prosperity of the 
farmer. It is only a small percentage of the far- 
mers who have as much skill in buying and selling 
as have the merchant and banker. The farmer does 
not keep up so well with the world's prices of his 
commodities, with the cost of transportation, and 
with supply and demand. It is too often the case 
that the farmer does not know whether he is losing 
or making money by his methods of cultivating the 



268 



The Story of Corn 



soil. This absence of business management has 
accounted in large measure for the poor lands and^ 
the shiftlessness of the tenant class. It also accounts 
for the abandoned farms and the rush to the cities. 
Looking still farther, it is not very difficult to see 
that to a great extent it accounts for the reduction 
in food supply and for the high cost of living. 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

A model dairy farm in the South. The result of increased corn 
production and good business management 

In 191 2 corn was selling in South Dakota for 
forty-one cents a bushel and in Iowa and Illinois 
for fifty cents a bushel. In South Carolina it was 
bought for about ninety-six cents a bushel and in 
Georgia for ninety-two cents a bushel. As the 
freight rate from the Northwestern States to the 
Southeastern States is only about twenty cents a 
bushel, it can easily be seen that the consumer in 
South Carolina paid to the middleman who bought 



Farmers' Demonstration Work 26g 

the corn for him almost as much as the corn was 
worth in the fields where it was produced. 

In addition to buying and selling, good business 
management on the farm must consider crop rota- 
tion, fertilizer, freight rates, and the best machinery. 
The farmer must understand why good roads are 
so valuable to his community and why poor roads 
are an expense because of the care of his horses, the 
wear on his vehicles, and the cost of getting to 
market. He must consider the influence of the 
public school in his community and of the general 
culture level of his neighbors. Ignorance is the 
greatest barrier to progress, and nowhere is it so 
destructive as in rural communities, for here it 
strikes at the very heart of the nation, and the 
decline of the farms, the diminishing food supply, and 
the high cost of Uving are indications that ignorance 
is still abroad in the land. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Varieties of Corn 

Favorable conditions for Corn Production. While 
Dr. Knapp was teaching the South the value of corn 
production and how to increase the yield, other 
nations of the globe were likewise studying this 
American grain. The world had learned this 
fact, that similar soil and climatic conditions are 
capable of producing similar plants. After Chicago 
became the center of the world's food supply and 
Europe began to depend more and more upon the 




From Dept. Agr. and Labor, North Dakota 

A North Dakota corn field. Richj loamy soil and carefully 

selected seed have made corn a profitable crop even in 

the northernmost counties oj this state 

food of America, the different nations of the world 
began to make a more thorough and scientific study 

270 



Varieties of Corn 2^1 

of soil and plants. It was discovered that corn 
grows best in a rich, loamy soil in a climate of 
abundant sunshine and rainfall. A region where the 
summer is comparatively long, from four and one- 
half to seven months ; where the possibilities of frost 
during the crop's growth are reduced to a minimum; 
where the soil is rich in the elements of plant food 
and is not too stiff and compact to allow of ready 
drying after rains by free drainage; where the 
summer rains, though copious, are not too heavy and 
frequent — such a region is ideal for the cultivation 
of maize. All these conditions are found in varying 
degrees throughout the United States save in the far 
western portion, where the rainfall is small. The 
same favorable conditions are found likewise in 
many sections of South America, Europe, Asia, 
Africa, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific. 

Extent of its Cultivation. Maize is the only 
cereal which was introduced into the Old World 
from the New. Being a very productive crop it 
yields, under equally favorable conditions, fully 
twice as much grain to the acre as does wheat. Its 
cultivation, therefore, spread very rapidly in the 
tropical and the warmer temperate parts of the 
Old World. Shortly after Columbus discovered 
America it was introduced into Spain and Portugal, 
and its cultivation spread into Italy and southern 
France. In Portugal it is mixed with rye and is 
the chief bread food of the peasant or poorer class, 
and for several centuries the Italians have been 
living chiefly on polenta, a sort of corn-meal mush. 



Varieties' of Corn 2yj 

There is no other cereal that can be produced in so 
many different cHmates and so many different kinds 
of soil and yield so abundantly. Its cultivation 
has spread to Egypt, where it forms the staple food 
of the peasantry. There the same soil produces 
three crops a year — in the autumn maize is cul- 
tivated, and after being followed by wheat in winter 
the same land produces cotton or rice in the summer. 
The Egyptians use the entire plant, for in that warm 
climate the large and very hard stalk is used in 
building houses. 

It was discovered during the last half of the 
nineteenth century that Roumania, possessing simi- 
lar soil and climate to that found in many portions 
of the United States, could produce corn more 
profitably than wheat. As a result Roumania has 
become the leading corn country of Europe. About 
seventy per cent of the people of that country 
engage in agriculture, and corn is not only the 
leading crop but is becoming the leading food, 
likewise. Roumania ranks third in the export of 
that cereal. The cultivation has spread to Thessaly 
in Greece, to Hungary and the country around the 
Danube, and to many sections of Russia. 

Maize has been introduced into Asia, also. Turkey 
and parts of India and China, and the inhabitants 
of the uplands of the Philippine Islands are learning 
the value of this great American cereal. It has 
recently been introduced into South Africa, and as 
the demand has increased at home for the American 
crop, the European nations that have colonies in 



274 



The Story oj Corn 



South Africa are interested in efforts to introduce 
Indian corn into that section of the globe. It is 
already predicted that in the near future Africa will 
supply Europe with this food'. Because of unfavor- 
able climatic conditions, England cannot raise Indian 
corn ; but the English government is active in extend- 
ing the cultivation throughout her South African col- 
onies. Certain sections of Australia and South Africa 
have already been exporting great quantities of 
corn to Europe, and it has become the leading crop 
in some parts of New South Wales and Queensland. 



iT^ihiit 


SHBB|i1 1 




R^S 




ff i ■ J 'MMHi^EI 



Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 

Grain elevators on the water front in the Argentifie. Elevators 
are gradually replacing the canalitas 

In South America it is an important crop of the 
Argentine and parts of Chile, and is cultivated in 



Varieties of Corn 275 

nearly every South American country. It is the 
leading crop of Mexico and Central America, and 
the natives of the West Indies have depended almost 
entirely upon it since long before the days of Colum- 
bus. Although originally a tropical plant, it is so 
easily adjusted to various kinds of soils and climates 
that certain varieties are now grown in the cold lands 
of Alaska, Russia, and China. 

Varieties of Corn. It is said that more than three 
hundred distinct varieties of corn are in existence 
to-day. Some come to maturity in two months, 
others require seven months; some are almost as 
many feet high as others are inches high, and some 
have kernels eleven times larger than others. The 
varieties vary in shape and size of ears, in color of 
the grain, — which may be white, yellow, red, purple, 
or striped, — and also in physical characteristics. 
These many varieties, however, are reduced to six 
general classes, which are grown primarily for the 
grain, and the distinguishing characteristics are 
based on the grains or kernels. 

1. Flint Corn. This variety is cultivated in 
Canada, northern United States, and in the colder 
regions of the temperate zones. The grain, as a 
rule, is shorter, rounder, and smoother than the grain 
commonly seen throughout this nation. The stalks 
are usually small, and the ears are borne near the 
ground. The flint corn matures quickly and is best 
adapted to regions where the summers are short. 

2. Dent Corn. Dent corn is the kind commonly 
grown in the United States and in the milder climates 



2^6 The Story of Corn 

of the temperate zones. But the varieties differ 
widely in the size of the plants and the appearance 
of the ear. Even the color of the grain varies 
greatly, being generally white, yellow, or red. 
Dent corn comprises all the varieties commonly 
grown in the fields of the United States; the bulk 
of the American corn, in fact, is of this variety. 
It consists chiefly of loosely arranged starch grains, 
and the shrinkage of this loose starch during ripening 
causes the depression, or dent, which gives it its 
name. The grain is much flattened and wedge- 
shaped, and longer than it is broad. 

J. Sweet Corn. This is preeminently a garden 
vegetable, the ear being used before the grain 
hardens, when it is well filled but soft and milky. 
It is often cooked and served on the cob, but when 
it is canned it is cut from the cob. Canned sweet 
corn is an important article of domestic commerce 
in the United States and Canada. The plant is 
very small, and bears many small ears which mature 
early. 

4. Pop Corn. Pop corn is a variety that is with- 
out the floury starch so valuable in other varieties, 
hence its value as an article of commerce among 
confectioners. When heated it pops open, and is 
very pleasant to eat. 

5. Soft Corn. This is the original variety in use 
by the Indians when Columbus discovered America, 
and it is called soft corn because the inner, nutritive 
part of the grain is soft and easily ground. It was 
suited to the needs of the Indians in the days when 



Varieties of Corn 



277 



the mortar was the only corn mill. This variety is 
not cultivated to any great extent in the United 
States to-day. 
The ears are 
small, and the 
grains are usually 
small and round. 
6. Pod Corn, 
This variety is a 
curiosity. Each 
grain is inclosed 
in a small shuck, 
and the whole ear 
is wrapped in an 
outer shuck. It 
is believed that 




Photograph by E. J. Hall 

The wild corn from which all varieties of 
corn are supposed to have developed 



the original form 

of maize was similar to this curious wild variety. 

The Origin of Com. The origin of Indian corn 
is unknown. However, like all other cereals, it 
belongs to the grass family, and the theory is held 
by many that it is derived from a Mexican fodder 
grass known as teosinte, a closely allied plant which, 
when crossed with maize, yields a maize-like hybrid. 
Each grain of the other cereals is, as is well known, 
inclosed in a small shuck, and the fact that one 
variety of maize, the pod corn, has the individual 
snuck for each grain gives strength to the belief 
that this was the original form. The grain of other 
cereals, however, appears in the top of the plant, 
while the grain of maize is in a large ear on the 



278 The Story of Corn 

stalk, sometimes near the ground and sometimes 
near the top of the plant. From the pod corn we 
come to the soft corn of the Indians, and from this 
soft corn we can trace the history of the many 
varieties in existence to-day. 

How Varieties are Formed. The fact that the 
corn plant is capable of adapting itself to a great 
variety of climates and soils is sufficient to show that 
it is capable of providing very readily a number of 
varieties, since cultivated plants, when transferred 
from one kind of soil and climate to different kinds 
of soil and climate, will as a rule form a different 
variety. It is easy to see, therefore, that chief 
among the agencies in producing different varieties 
of corn are soil and climate, since we could hardly 
expect to find the same variety in Alaska that is 
grown in Mexico. Moreover, the very nature of 
the corn plant subjects it to ready changes and 
varieties. Suppose we notice the blossoming of the 
corn. Fine, silky threads may be seen hanging 
exposed from the end of the green ear. At the top 
of the stalk is the tassel. The fine pollen dust of 
the tassel is readily blown about by the wind and 
sifted on the silky threads hanging from the ear of 
the corn. This pollen dust fertilizes the ear and 
produces the grain. Where different varieties of 
corn are growing in the same field, the pollen from 
the tassel of one variety may be carried by the wind 
or by insects to the silky pistils or threads of another, 
and sometimes even produce different varieties of 
kernels on the same ear. So easily is the pollen 



Varieties of Corn zjg 

dust carried about, and so exposed is the ear to 
receive it, that the grain is constantly undergoing 
changes, being modified, and producing new varie- 
ties. Other varieties are formed by selecting the 
seed properly. This method is used to such advan- 
tage that it is considered in a separate section. 





From Farmers' Bulletin No. 415, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

A good method of seed selection. Ears are taken from only those plants 

that have produced heavily luider average coitditions and in close 

competition with less productive plants in the same locality 

It is easy to see, therefore, that a grain which 
will so easily form new varieties and so readily 
adapt itself to so many different kinds of soil and 
climate will, in the course of 'a few centuries, pro- 
duce in different parts of the world varieties that are 
wholly unlike in many particulars. 

Improving the Variety by Seed Selection. The one 
fundamental principle underlying corn production 



28o 



The Story of Corn 



and the improvement of the variety is found in 
the proper selection of seed corn. In the first 
place the seed must be suited to the locality. Dent 
corn is the common variety used in the United States, 

but there are several 
varieties of this class, 
and it has been dem- 
onstrated that the 
proper selection and 
care of seed corn will 
in itself increase the 
average yield per acre 
by many bushels. 

Dr. Knapp, in his 
instruction to south- 
ern farmers, advised 
them to select stalks 
that are free from 
disease of every kind 
and are not in the 
immediate neighbor- 
hood of diseased 
stalks. If a prolific 
variety, the stalk 
should have at least 
two good ears upon 
shanks four or five 
and these should show a decided 
turn down. As soon as the corn is 




Pb(;tofj;raph by Kinti; Print. s Co. 

Corn smut. In selecting seed ears 

the farmer avoids parts of the 

field where smut appears 

on the stalks 



inches long, 
tendency to 



sufficiently dry it should be carefully gathered and 
housed. If there are two good ears on the stalk. 



Varieties of Corn 



281 



bQth should be selected. But if one is poor, only the 
good one should be taken. Moreover, only those 
ears that have the ends well covered with a close- 
fitting husk should be gathered for seed corn, since 




From Farmers' Bulletin No. 415, U. S. Dept. Agr. 

Seed ears strung in a cool, dry place as soon as gathered will give 
a greater yield than if stored in a heap with the crib corn 

this is a very effective protection against the weevil. 
The ears should be stored in a cool, dry, well- 
ventilated place, and not in too great bulk, so there 
will be no danger of heating. But it should always 
be kept from freezing. 



282 



The Story of Corn 



According to reports from the national Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, seed corn should be selected 




Ohio State University 



Corn tester or germinator. By watching these young plants the 
farmer can judge the growing qualities of his seed 

in the South the last of August^p^nd in the North 
early in September, and no farmer should permit 
October to pass without having sufficient seed corn 
for at least one year's planting stored where it 
cannot be injured by unfavorable or unexpected 
weather. It has been proved that seed corn, sepa- 
rated from the corn in the crib and put in a cool, dry 
place, will give a greater yield than if the same corn 
is stored in a heap with the crib corn. This differ- 
ence alone in the treatment of seed corn increased 
the yield in one particular instance about seven per 
cent, or for every hundred bushels raised the yield 
was increased on an average of about seven bushels. 
Within the last few years more attention has been 
paid to the selection of seed corn in all states where 
corn is the leading crop. The various experiment 
stations send out special corn trains in charge 
of trained experts explaining the different grades 



Varieties of Corn 28 j 

and varieties best adapted for use in different 
localities. The necessity of having the right variety 
is seen in the fact that corn is planted in various 
sections of the United States from the twentieth 
of March to the twentieth of May, and ripens from 
September to October, according to the weather and 
climate. In the northern part of the United States 
it matures in from seventy to ninety days, growing 
from three to four feet tall, while in the Southern 
States, Mexico, and Central America it sometimes 
reaches a height of twenty feet or more, and requires 
six months to mature. 

For a good example of how-to test the value of 
seed corn, see page 282. 

How Good Soil improves the Variety. It is not 
economical to grow corn on poor land. The Eastern 
States as well as the Southern States have dis- 
covered this fact, and in many sections of the South 
farmers had almost ceased to cultivate the grain 
when Dr. Knapp began his work. But it was 
discovered that the soil could be improved, and 
when improved, as the boys' corn clubs demon- 
strated, the land would yield abundantly. The 
corn plant has no long tap root, but it has a great 
many fibrous roots that branch out in every direction 
and fully occupy the soil to a depth of from two to 
four feet. The great body of its feeding roots, 
however, are found from four to eighteen inches 
below the surface. It requires, therefore, a good 
seed bed of from eight to ten inches deep, and this 
can be obtained only by breaking the land deep. 



284 



The Story of Corn 



A very deep seed bed well filled with manure is of 
more importance in the South than in the North 

because of the high 
temperature and 
consequent greater 
evaporation. To 
make its largest 
yield, corn requires 
not only a deep seed 
bed but a large 
amount of humus 
in the soil. Conse- 
quently most land 
needs some previous 
preparation, such as 
the plowing under 
of a green crop or 
the use of stable 
manure. Even if 
the soil has a fair 
amount of vegetable 
matter in it, good 
crops of cow peas 
turned under in the fall, or vetch or crimson clover 
turned under in the spring, will greatly increase the 
yield. Ver^'- poor lands should not be planted in 
com. Such lands planted in peas, beans, or other 
forage crops will produce more feed and at the same 
time improve rapidly in fertility. 

After a deep seed bed containing humus is pre- 
pared, farmers are advised to go over the land with 




From Dept. Soils, Missouri College of Agriculture 

Corn raised on a plot of ground 

that had not been treated 

with fertilizer 



Varieties of Corn 



285 



a disk or section harrow two or three times before 
planting, and repeat with harrow immediately after 
planting and again after the crop is up. The object 
sought is to pulverize the soil thoroughly and thus 
prevent the formation of any crust or the growth of 
weeds. If it is possible for boys to cultivate over 
two hundred bushels of corn to the acre at a very 
small cost per bushel, it certainly would pay the 
farmer to devote all 
his time to two or 
three acres and 
make them give up 
the yield necessary 
for the needs of his 
family and stock. 

The Use of Ferti- 
lizer. The produc- 
tive capacity of 
practically all soils in 
good physical con- 
dition is measured 
by the available 
supply of three 
necessary elements : 
phosphoric acid, 
potash, and nitro- 
gen. Of course 
there are many other 
elements that the 




From Dept. Soils, Missouri College of Agriculture 

Corn raised in soil treated with 

limey legume, phosphorus^ 

ard potassium 



plant takes up from either the air or the soil, but 
these are the three that are soon removed from the 



286 



The Story of Corn 



soil unless the farmer has some way of restoring the 
amount removed. Professor Cyril G. Hopkins, of 




Photograph by King Prints Co. 

Testing fertilizers for corn and other crops. This is part of the 
work done for the farmers at experiment stations 

the University of Illinois, has demonstrated that 
an acre of corn in that state producing a hundred 
bushels of grain will take from the soil in one year 
one hundred forty-eight pounds of nitrogen, twenty- 
three pounds of phosphorus, and seventy-one pounds 
of potash. The total market value of these three 
elements removed from the soil is $29.22: nitrogen, 
$22.20; phosphorus, $2.76; and potash, $4.26. 

Suppose a piece of land two acres in size when 
planted for the first time in corn produces a hundred 
bushels. According to the above figures, at the end 
of the first year it is worth nearly thirty dollars less 



Varieties of Corn 287 

than before it was planted. Of course, the farmer 
has received one hundred bushels of corn, valued at 
about sixty dollars. But suppose the land is planted 
from year to year in corn. Soon it will contain an 
insufficient amount of these elements to produce a 
hundred bushels, and the yield will be less. From 
this time on the land will degenerate rapidly. It 
would have to be very rich land indeed at the begin- 
ning to be worth cultivating at all after a period of 
ten or fifteen years. 

According to Professor Hopkins's experiments an 
acre of land that will produce one hundred bushels 
of corn would produce four tons of clover hay or 
three tons of cow-pea hay containing the following 
amounts of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash: 





Pounds 


Value 




Nitrogen 


Phosphoric Acid 


Potash 




4 tons clover hay . . . 
3 tons cow-pea hay . 


160 
130 


20 
14 


120 
98 


$33.60 
27.00 



These two classes of hay really take more from 
the soil than corn, but the roots and stubbles 
left in the field contain more than is taken away in 
the hay. Therefore, these crops have a tendency 
to enrich the soil. If the second year the land is 
planted in leguminous crops, the hay is not quite 
so valuable as the corn, but the land is in better 
condition for raising a corn crop the third year. 
However, by planting corn on the same land every 
other year, the necessary elements will be removed 
after a while, although it will take nearly twice as 
long. By growing legumes with corn the nitrogen 



288 The Story of Corn 

content of the soil may not only be maintained but 
enriched, since these plants have the power to draw 
nitrogen from the air. 

The same land planted in wheat or oats will take 
from the soil only about twenty dollars worth of 
these elements. But the stubble and straw left in 
the field return probably a fifth of this amount; and 
if these crops are followed in the same year with a 
legume, the land is only a little poorer than it was 
at the beginning of the year. If the legumes are 
plowed under in a green state, the land is richer, but 
the farmer loses the value of the hay; and if he 
would keep the hay, it is necessary to use fertilizer 
in order to keep the land from degenerating. 

It can thus be seen how injurious to land are 
ign'orant farm tenants. It requires more skill to 
maintain a high productivity of the land than it 
does to run a store, operate a mill, or make laws 
for a people. Here ignorance is the greatest curse, 
and it is the more damaging because it takes a 
number of years to see the full effect of ignorance 
on the land. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Corn: The National Grain 

The Value of Corn. The corn crop of America in 
any one year is the most valuable asset of this 
nation. When we say that it is worth nearly two 
billion dollars we do not really comprehend its 
importance ; but it is sufficient to pay off the national 
debt, buy all the gold and silver mined in all the 
countries of the world in a single year, and still leave 
a considerable sum. The entire cotton crop as a 
rule is only about half as valuable as the corn crop, 
and all the other crops combined are worth barely 
half as much. This is a great manufacturing age, 
but all the iron and steel output of a single year 
in the United States is not worth nearly so much 
in actual dollars and cents as a year's corn crop. 
Its value for eight such years as that of 1910 would 
be sufficient to buy all the railroads of the United 
States, including their costly stations and all their 
rolling stock. In thirteen years it would replace 
the present banking capital, surplus deposits, and 
the entire money in circulation ; and it is so easy to 
cultivate that millions of bushels can without extra 
labor be added to our crop simply by a modification 
of the corn planter or by even separating the seed 
corn from the corn in the crib. It is not only the 
most valuable crop produced in America, but it is 

289 



2Q0 The Story of Corn 

becoming more and more a necessary food for civi- 
lized man, and as a food for horses, hogs, and other 
domestic animals it is by far the most important on 
this continent. 

When we speak of the amount of corn produced in 
a single year, the tremendous quantity expressed 
by the term ''billions of bushels" is but vaguely 
understood. But suppose we look at it this way: 
By placing the 1910 corn crop of the United States in 
wagons, fifty bushels in each, and allowing twenty 
feet of space for each wagon and team, the wagon 
train of corn would extend in length nearly two 
hundred thousand miles, or more than nine times 
around the world. Notwithstanding this immense 
amount, we are not producing to-day even as much 
com as we need, and every state in the Union, 
backed by the national government, is studying 
the land, improving the seed, training teachers, and 
establishing schools for the purpose of increasing 
production. But why is the corn plant so valuable? 

The most common Corn Products. The number 
of uses to which we are putting this Indian plant 
is surprising. First, as food for man, we have 
corn meal, grits, hulled corn and hominy, flourine 
(made by mixing flour and meal), roasting ears, 
canned corn, pop corn, and a variety of breakfast 
foods, some of which are found on our table nearly 
every morning. As food for stock we have shelled 
and cracked corn, a meal produced by grinding corn 
and cob together, fodder, ensilage (the whole plant), 
corn-stalk meal, corn bran, gluten meal, and oil cake. 



Corn: The National Grain 



291 




— Copsmght by Keystone View Co. 

Here the corn is being cut^ after which it is sent up the pipe 
leading into the top of the silo hy means of a blower 

Besides using large quantities for food we have 
other valuable products derived from corn, as 
follows: Glucose is a white, sweet substance of 
about half the sweetness of cane sugar, and is used 
to mix with table sirup, jam, and jellies. It is 
also used by manufacturers in making candy and 
chewing gum. Dextrine is a soluble, gummy sub- 
stance made from the cornstarch, and is used by 
fine fabric workers, confectioners, and apothecaries. 
One of the most valuable by-products, however, 
is cornstarch, from which glucose and dextrine are 
made. It is used to a great extent in cooking, and 



2g2 



The Story of Corn 



every mother in the home knows the value of corn- 
starch in preparing many dishes for the table, and 
in laundering the linen for the family. Textile 
manufacturers use it for the dressing and finishing 
of many textiles, and especially as a thickening 
material in calico printing. It is used by other 
manufacturers in making baking powder, face 
powder, candies, and even paper. 

Oils of various kinds are also made from corn. 
We have machine oils, cylinder oils, toilet soap, 
shaving soap, axle grease, laundry soaps, and 
table oils, many of these oils being made by mixing 
the com products with other oils. It is likewise 




Loaned by American Manufacturers' Association of Products from Corn 

Section of a starch-packing room in a corn-products manufactory 



Corn: The National Grain 



293 



used by paint manufacturers and leather dressers. 

From the cob we have cob meal, a stock food; 
burned cobs that make what is known as bone food 
for hogs; cob pipes (Missouri is the cob-pipe state 
of the Union) ; cob sidewalks, which are superior 
to cinder walks, and were first used in Iowa; and, 
lastly, the cob used for fuel. 

From husks and stalk we have many by-products. 
Cellulose is used in the arts and also as a padding 

* Corn Plant (Maize) 



CoC 








bI. 


I 






Stjlk 


n Hu'fks 




< 


Leaves 






Pith 


Brea'kfast food 


Glut 


en hJiIs 


MMs 

Malt res 


F 


el 


Pi 


For 


der Pa, 


er 


Cellulose 




Stockjfood 


5es 


G< 


pes 


Packing in war 


vessels 










•rm 








S 




Corn oil 


Oil cake 


and meal 




o|ap 


ubri 


rator R 


ab 


Paints 


Stock 


food 






L 


3cr substitute 








Starch 






ine 


Fo^d Lajndry Gluqose Syr 


up 


AIci 


hoi 




Dext] 



From Robinson's "Commercial Geography" 



The industrial uses of the corn plant 

for ships ; glue is made from the stalk juice by mixing 
with other materials; a fundamental element in the 
manufacture of dynamite, husks for mattresses, 
corn hats, and husks and silks used in manufacturing 
dolls are some of the by-products. In addition to 
these by-products, there is another that is becoming 
more and more valuable as a commercial article, 
and that is paper, three grades of which are made 
from the com plant. 

These are many of the more important uses to 



2g4 The Story of Corn 

which we are putting the corn plant. But many of 
these by-products in turn give rise to a second series 
of most interesting products. For example, corn oil, 
vulcanized, forms the basis of a substitute for rubber, 
and when it is compounded with sixty per cent of 
India rubber it is used in the manufacture of rubber 
boots, linoleum, wheel tires, blankets, and other 
articles. Crude corn oil has been used in the 
manufacture of toilet soap; in its purified form 
it is as clear as alcohol, and is then used as the 
basis of a substitute for olive oil. The porosity of 
the corn stalk pith adapts it for sheathing between 
the walls of battle ships, so that if the armor is 
penetrated ^this pith swells and automatically closes 
the leak. 

The Corn Kitchen at the Paris Exposition. Before 
1900 Indian corn was not eaten to any great extent 
by Europeans outside of Italy and Portugal. But 
during the World's Exposition at Paris in that year, 
Mr. Charles R. Dodge, one of the United States 
directors, was in charge of a maize kitchen, the pur- 
pose of which was to prepare and serve free of charge 
all the dishes made from corn that were used by the 
Americans at home, and to exhibit the corn products 
manufactured in America. Some of the dishes 
served were as follows: the different corn soups; 
yellow and white corn-meal mush; hominy grits; 
hominy in cream ; hominy an gratin; all kinds of corn 
fritters from yellow, white, and sweet corn; the 
dififerent griddle cakes with maple sirup ; frumentum 
pudding; maizena blanc mange; corn muffins; corn 



Corn: The National Grain 295 

bread, both yellow and white ; Boston brown bread ; 
and pop corn. 

This kitchen attracted thousands of people and 
fed hundreds daily. As the visitors inspected the 
corn products and the cooking they observed a case 
not more than three feet square and six feet high 
in which were samples of the more important 
products of Indian corn. In that collection the 
traveler saw corn meal (yellow and white), pearl 
hominy, hulled corn, cream of maize, granulated 
corn meal, canned green corn, canned hulled corn, 
maizena, samp, degerminated samp, cream meal, 
self-raising pancake flour, quick malt, brewer's 
grits, husks for mattresses, cellulose made of pith 
for packing the coffer dams of battle ships, paper 
stock prepared from shells of the corn stalk, deger- 
minated brewers* meal, Bourbon whisky, alcohol, 
bolted corn meal, hulled corn meal, feed from 
ground corn blades and stalks and cobs, varnish, 
cob pipes, lager beer, fancy table sirup, pop corn, 
table grits, British gum, salves, laundry starch, 
vulcanized corn oil, oil cake, grape sugar, gluten 
feed, glucose, confectioners' crystal glucose, and 
confectioners '- paste. 

The products of Indian corn made a beautiful 
display, and that one small collective exhibit was a 
most interesting and inviting study to all who came 
to Paris to gaze upon the wonders of the World's 
Fair. Visitors from every nation entered and were 
fed on the products of Indian com. Russian and 
Roumanian cooks were taught how to prepare the 



2q6 The Story of Corn 

food. The Vegetarian Club of France sent cooks 
to this kitchen to be taught how to use the Indian 
corn, and before the close of the Exposition one 
famous restaurant in Paris advertised that dishes 
from Indian corn could be obtained at that place. 

When these foods were compared with polenta, 
the Italian dish made from corn, the natives from 
that peninsula were astonished, and Italian women 
came to learn how the American foods were prepared. 
One great difficulty, however, in popularizing corn 
foods in many parts of Europe was to be found in 
the equipment of the family kitchen. What little 
cooking was done in the house was accomplished as 
a rule on a small oil or gas stove, while the bread was 
usually prepared at the public bakery. Corn foods 
at their best must be served hot, and in most 
countries this required a considerable change in 
domestic habits. 

Corn as a Food for Man. The importance of 
corn as a table food is seen in the fact that almost 
every cook book and journal of cooking contains 
recipes for corn dishes, while several such books are 
devoted exclusively to corn and corn products. 
The food value, however, of any product depends in 
the main upon four nutritious elements : (i) protein 
or nitrogenous material; (2) fat; (3) carbohydrates, 
including starches and sugar ; and (4) mineral matter 
or ash. 

The two functions of the food are to furnish 
material for the building up and repair of body 
tissue and to supply energy for muscular work and 



Corn: The National Grain 



297 



body heat. Only protein can serve for the necessary 
tissue building. Therefore, this is usually consid- 
ered its main function, while the fats and carbo- 
hydrates are relied on to furnish most of the energy. 
When we compare this cereal with the others in 
use by civilized man we find that it does not contain 
as much protein as wheat, oats, or barley. But, as 
may be seen in the following table, it contains a 
greater amount of fat than any other cereal except 
oats. In starch and sugar, the leading elements 
of carbohydrates, it is about equal to wheat flour. 
Composition of Cereals 



Corn meal 

Oatmeal 

Wheat flour 

Pearl barley 

Rye meal 

Rice 

Buckwheat flour . 



Protein 



% 



15 
10 

9 

7 
7 
6 



Fat 



Starch 



751 

68.0 
75.6 
77.6 

78.5 
79-4 

77.2 



Mineral 
Matter 



% 
0.9 



Water 



12 

7 

12 
10 

17 
12 

14 



Adapted from Pearl L. Bailey's "Domestic Science Principles and Application" . 

The real value of any food, however, depends not 
only upon the amount of nutrients which it sup- 
plies but also on the proportion of these nutri- 
ents which the digestive organs can assimilate. 
Investigation shows that there is little difference 
between Indian corn and wheat in this respect. 

A Comparison. We have come at last to the 
end of the story. By comparing the conditions in 
Europe when Columbus discovered America, as 
described in the first part of the book, with the 
conditions to-day, we can see how man's knowledge 



2g8 



The Story of Corn 



has increased and how the world has progressed. 
When the Indian planted his corn he punched a hole 
in the ground with a stick and kept the beasts and 
birds away until it was ready for the harvest. The 
system of farming then in use in Europe was only a 
little superior to that of the Indians. As knowledge 
increased, however, and man began to understand 
something of the force that worked in the soil, he 
studied the little roots as they crept around in the 
darkness of the earth beneath. He learned to care 
for them, just as he cared for the domestic animals 
around the home; and as they sent up a fuller life 
to the plants above he saw his food increasing some 
forty, some sixty, and some even an hundred fold. 
As man's intelligence increased he threw the old 




PhotoKraph by E. J. Hall 

The modern corn planter. It was a long step from the laborious 

task of planting each grain of corn by hand to this 

swift and easy method 

stick away, and to-day we have great machines that 
tear up the earth, plant the grain, and harvest the 



Corn: The National Grain 2gg 

food. The little stone mortars in which the Indians 
ground their grain are kept as relics in museums, 
while great factories, much larger than Indian 
villages, and giving work to more men than were 




Copyright by Keystone View Co. 

Harvesting and loading silage corn 

found in the leading Indian tribes, to-day handle 
millions of bushels of grain and grind many millions 
of barrels of foodstuff annually. 

When Columbus discovered America there were 
very few roads in Europe over which wagons or 
carriages could pass. Four or six horses tugged 
away sometimes at the king's carriage, and foot- 
men followed along to lift it out of holes and bogs 
and to protect the royal family as it passed from 
town to town. Foodstuffs, therefore, could not be 



joo The Story of Corn 

transported any great distance. But to-day the fine 
macadam roads, the swift-moving palace trains, and 
the long line of freight trains tell of the progress of 
the world and the victory of mind over natural 
obstacles. 

When Columbus saw those patches of Indian corn 
growing on the Island of Haiti, he could not of 
course foresee that within four centuries this new 
grain would become the basis of the wealth and pros- 
perity of America, and necessary to the protection 
of the world against famine and pestilence. How- 
ever, in 1892, four hundred years after the discovery 
of America, the nations of the world came together 
in Chicago to celebrate that important event. 
When Columbus's three frail vessels first sighted 
this new world wheat was the leading food, famine 
and pestilence made periodical visits and claimed 
a large per cent of the inhabitants of the world. 
But four hundred years later, when the mighty war 
vessels of Europe, larger than small islands, and the 
mammoth steamboats crowded with thousands of 
visitors on their way to the World's Fair, came to 
America to celebrate the fourth centennial of the 
discovery of this new land, Indian corn had made 
the new continent richer than the fabled cities of 
mythology, and had driven famine from the civilized 
world. 

Such are the mighty changes that have taken place 
within these four centuries. The forces of nature, 
however, are still the same, yesterday, to-day, and 
forever. It is man that has changed, not nature, 



Corn: The National Grain joi 

Steam had the same elastic force, electricity the 
same voltage, the soil the same life-giving power, in 
the days of Moses and Ulysses that they have to-day. 
But mind has developed; and as the intelligence 
works upward it draws man away from the habits 
of the brute, giving him a larger understanding and 
a clearer insight into many natural forces operating 
unceasingly for the betterment of humanity. 



A BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Agricultural Department: 

Fanners' Bulletin, Nos. 75, 142, 203, 249, 313, 314, 

389, 415- 
Year Book, 1908, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14. 

Bailey: Principles of Agriculture. 

Brigham: Geographic Influences in American History. 

Brooks: The Story of Cotton. 

Bruce: Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road. 

Bucher: Industrial Evolution. 

Bureau of Ethnology: Twelfth Annual Report. 

Cambridge Modem History, Vol. XL 

Cheyney: Social and Industrial History of England. 

Chisholm: Handbook of Commercial Geography .^ 

Colbert: Humanity in Its Origin and Early Growth. 

Coman: Industrial History of the United States. 

Davidson: Human Body and Health. 

Dondlinger: The Book of Wheat. 

Duggar: Southern Field Crops. 

Fiske: The Critical Period of American History. 

Green: Short History of the English People. 

Hallam: The Middle Ages. 

Holland: Historic Inventions. 

Howe: Memoir of the Most Eminent American Me- 
chanics. 

Hulbert: The History of Road Building. 

Hunt : The Cereals in America. 

McMaster: History of the People of the United States. 

Morley: The Life of Richard Cobden. 

Myrick: The Book of Com. 

Redway: The Making of the American Nation. 

302 



A Bibliography 303 



Robinson: Commercial Geography. 
Rogers : Work and Wages. 
Roosevelt: The Winning of the West. 
Smiles : Life of George Stephenson. 
Soyer: Pantropheon (out of print). 
Thompson: Practical Dietetics. 
Turner: Rise of the New West. 



THE INDEX 



AFRICA, corn in South, 247-248, 273- 

274. 

Agricultural Department of United 
States organized Corn Clubs, 263- 
265. 

Agricultural experiment stations, 244, 
251, 282-283. 

Agricultural machinery, 217-235. 

Agricultural schools, 251; first, 242; 
work of the, 244. 

Agriculture, an important factor of 
early settlements in America, 55; 
improvements in, 240-243; in the 
early Western States, 140; in South 
America, 246; primitive methods of, 
132-135. 

Alaska, corn in, 275. 

America, agriculture an important fac- 
tor in early settlements of, 55; com- 
merce of the world affected by 
discovery of, 51-53; divided among 
the Europeans, 60; free lands of, 
76-77 ; forces which influenced growth 
of colonies in, 79-80; how settled, 
77-79. 

Animals, domesticated by primitive 
people, 9-1 1. 

Argentine Republic, 246. 

Arrowroot flour, 33. 

Asia, corn in, 273. 

Australia, corn in, 274. 

BAKER of ancient times, an impor- 
tant person, 35-37- 

Baldwin, Matthias W., 191. 

Baltimore, a cattle market, 143; active 
in railroad building, 192. 

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 192; 
beginning of, 190. 

Barley bread, 33. 

Beeson, Bennie, 261. 

Benton, Senator, 180. 

"Big Ditch," 169. 

Binders, corn, 226-227. 

Blenkensop engine, 185. 

Boll weevil, 255-257. 

Boone, Daniel, 98-101. 

Boonesboro, loi. 

Boys' Corn Clubs, 259-265. 

Bread, ancients used various kinds of, 
36-37; of the world, 32-35- 

Bread-baking, an ancient art, 28-30. 

Buckwheat, 33. 

Buenos Aires, 246. 

CAHOKIA, 107. 



Canals, 157-158; and their effect on 
the East, 174-175; and their effect on 
Mississippi trade, 175-176; and their 
effect on the West, 172-174; building 
of, 168-172; decline in importance of, 
192; travel by boat on, 172-173. 

Carroll, Charles, 190. 

Castor-oil bean in the Wabash Valley, 
142. 

Cattle, uses made of all parts of, 
210-212. 

Cattle trade, a resource of the West dur- 
ing panics, 179; between Western and 
Eastern States, 143. 

Cellulose, 293. 

Central America, corn in, 275. 

Cereals, chief food of primitive man 
and beast, 11-15; composition of, 
297. 

Ceres, 19-21. 

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 171. 

Chicago, 194; a great grain center, 232; 
growth of, 205-214. 

China, corn in, 273-275. 

Cincinnati, 122, 141, 147, 181, 208; a 
great meat market, 179; a trade 
center, 164-165; the "Queen City" 
of the West, 176. 

Clark, George Rogers, 104-108. 

Clay, Henry, in the Senate, 149-15 1. 

"Clermont," the, 153-155. 

Clinton, Governor, 169. 

Cobden, Richard, 181. 

Columbus writes to Spain of cornfields 
in the New World, 40. 

Commerce, a means of joining Eastern 
and Western States, 145; beginning 
of, 39-40; between Eastern and 
Western States in the early days, 
136-139; between states, regulated 
by Congress, 156; in relation to food 
supply, 51-53. 

Conestoga wagons, 138. 

Cooking, ancient knowledge of, 28-30. 

Cooper, Peter, 190. 

Corn, 35, 55; an important crop among 
the pioneers of America, 134-135; 
and its importance in history of 
America, 42-43, 72; and its relation 
to the live-stock industry, 208-210; 
as a food, 296-297; as handled in 
grain elevators, 230-233 ; beginning of 
European trade in, 182; chief source 
of wealth in Western States, 142- 
145; comparison of early methods 
with present methods of cultivation 



304 



The Index 



305 



of, 297-301; conditions favorable to 
production of, 270-2 7 1 ; early methods 
of harvesting, 222-225; extent of 
cultivation of, 271-275; formation 
of varieties of, 278-279; good soil 
improves variety of, 283-288; growth 
of colonies depended on, 86-88; in 
Kentucky, 102-103; in the New- 
World, 40-41; in the Ohio Valley, 
96; in South America, 246-248; in 
the West, 124, 125, 126, 179-181; 
in the world's commerce, 207, 244- 
245; Indian myth of origin of, 21-24; 
machines for harvesting, 225-228; 
national grain of America, 176, 289, 
301; Piedmont country depended on, 
85-86; origin of, 277-278; pod, '277; 
problem in United States of increas- 
ing production of, 249-250, 252-253; 
production of, 215, 244; products of, 
. 290-296; proper selection of seed, 
279-283; soft, 276-277; sweet, 276; 
the American gold, 73; the Thirteen 
Colonies prospered on, 80-85; used 
by early settlers in America, 65-77; 
used by Western States to fatten 
cattle, hogs, and horses for trade, 
143-145; value of, 289-290; varieties 
of, 275-277; whiskey made from, 86. 

Corn binders, 226-227. 

Corn clubs, 251, 259-265. 

Corn country, and its influence on the 
science of agriculture, 242; Daniel 
B9one and the, 98-101; difficulties of 
joining the rest of the world with the, 
149-166; early life in the, 132-148; 
English and French struggle for 
possession of the, 92; the Far West 
dependent upon the, 239-240; first 
settlement in the, 1 21-123; geography 
of the, 108-110; George Rogers Clark 
saves the, 104-108; growth of the, 
176-178; Kentucky a, 108; limits of 
the, 200-202; opening the great, 
93-110; population in, 199, 202; 
prosperity of the, 202-205; railroad 
starts toward the, 191-194; settling 
the, 111-113. 

Corn Kitchen at the Paris Exposition, 
294-296. 

"Corn" of the world, 11-13. 

Corn pickers, 228. 

Corn shockers, 227-228. 

Cotton, 140-141; ravaged by the boll 
weevil, 255-257. 

Cotton lands, 129. 

"Critical Period," 113. 

Cumberland, starting point for first 
great national highway, 148. 

Cumberland Gap, 98. 

Cumberland River, steamboats on the, 
164. 

Cuyahoga River, 171. 

DEERSKINS, used as clothing by 

early Westerners, 140. 
Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, 171. 



Delaware and Hudson Canal, 171. 
Demeter, 19. 

Demonstration work, farmers' coopera- 
tive, 255-258, 265-267. 
Dent corn, 275-276, 280. 
Dextrine, 291. 
Dodge, Charles R., 294. 
Duluth, 210. 

EAST, effect of building of canals on 

the, 174. 
Egypt, corn in, 273. 
Egyptian myth of food-giving plants, 

17-19. 
Elevators, grain, 230-233. 
Emigration from Europe, 128-129. 
English, in the Ohio Valley, French 

and, 95-98. 
English settlement in America, first, 

60-65. 
Epimetheus, story of, 5-7. 
Erie Canal, 189, 204; a highway for 

settlers seeking the West, 176; 

opening of the, 169-171. 
Europe, emigration from, 128-129. 
Everett, Edward, on corn or American 

gold, 73. 
Experiment stations, agricultural, 244, 

251, 282-283. 
Explorers in the New World, 58-60. 

FAMINES, 44, 181; cause of, 45-47; of 
the world, 48, 50; settlement of 
America reduces, 52-55. 

Farmer, and business management, 
267-268. 

Farmers' cooperative demonstration 
work, 255-258; result of, 265-267. 

Farming, improvements in methods of, 
240-243; machinery for, 218-235; 
primitive implements of, 217-218. 
See also Agriculture. 

Feeding instinct, 1-2. 

Fertilizer, use of, 285-288. 

Flint corn, 275. 

Floating stores, 145-147. 

"Fodder," 224. 

Food, a factor in civilization, 26-43; 
evils due to insufficient, 44-51; 
importance of good, 30-31; in rela- 
tion to the body, 2-5; its selection' 
and preparation, a study in our 
schools to-day, 31; struggle for, 1-15- 

Food-giving plants, mythical stories of, 
16-25. 

Food supply of world, as affected by 
discovery of a new continent, 44-56; 
center of the, 214-216; relation of 
commerce to, 51-53. 

Fort Harmer, 122. 

France, corn in, 271. 

Free lands of America, 76. 

French explorers in America, 60. 

French in the Ohio Valley, 95-98. 

Frontiers of America, early, 88-92; the 
last, 236-251. 

Fulton, Robert, 152-155' 



3o6 



The Index 



GENOA, a trading center, 40. 
Georgia, active in railroad building, 

190. 
Glucose, 291. 
Grain elevators, 230-233. 
Grain of the West, 178-182. 
Grain trade of Chicago, 213-214. 
Granary of the world, the, 197-216; 

how the West became the, 217-235. 
Great Lakes, an influence toward the 

building of the West, 204. 
Greece, corn in, 273. 
Greek myth of food-giving plant, 19-21. 
Guthrie, 201. 

HADLEY, A. N., 227. 
Hagerstown, 138, 139. 
Harrod, James, settlement made by, 

lOI. 

Harvesting, early methods of, 222-225; 

primitive methods of, 220. 
Hatch, Representative, 243. 
Hiawatha, Mondamin and, 21-24. 
Highways, ancient, 94-95 ; to the West, 

117. See also Roads. 
Hill, Junius, 261. 
Hogs, in streets of early Chicago, 206, 

208 ; use made of all parts of, 2 1 2-213; 

Western States establish trade in, 

144-145. 
Hopkins, Cyril G., 286. 
Horses, Western States establish trade 

in, 144-145. 
Hudson-Mohawk route, 117, 109. 
Hungary, corn in, 273. 
Hunger, 2-5. 
Huskinson, Mr., 187. 

ICELAND moss, 34. 

Illinois, 109, 117, 125. 

Illinois and Michigan Canal, 206. 

Immigrants to America, 1823-1910, 

216. 
Immigration to the United States from 

Europe, 178. 
India, corn in, 273; famines in, 44. 
Indiana, 109, 117, 125. 
Indian corn. See Corn. 
Indian method of cultivating corn, 

298-299. 
Indians, Boone and the, loi; of North 

America, 7-9; myth of food-giving 

plants of the, 21-24. 
Indian trails, 92, 136. 
Internal improvements, an era of, 

167-182; dispute over, 151; need of, 

149-150; invention of stearnboats 

aids cause of, 157-159. 
Iowa, 109, 202. 
Isis and Osiris, 17-19. 
Italy, corn in, 271. 

JAMESTOWN colony, 63. 

KANSAS, 199. 
Kansas City, 210. 
Kaskaskia, Clark at, 107. 



Kentucky, 99-103, 112, 123; a great 
corn country, 108; George Rogers 
Clark in, 104-108; Henry Clay sent 
to Senate by, 149. 

Killingsworth, England, 185, 187. 

Knapp, Seaman A., 253-255, 256; 257, 
258, 259, 267, 280; death of, 261. 

LANCASTER ROAD, 127, 145. 

Land companies, 122. 

Landlords of England, 74-76. 

Land o^ynership in England, 74-76; in 
America, 76-79, 87. 

La Plata River, valley of the, 246. 

Leath, Ben, 261. 

Liverpool-Manchester Road of Eng- 
land, 191. 

Live-stock industry, 208-213; relation 
of corn to the, 208-210. 

Livingston, Chancellor, 153. 

"Loader," corn, 228. 

Locomotive, first American-built, 190; 
introduced into America, 188-189; 
invention of, 185-188; motive- 
power for first, 190-191. 

Louisiana, 121. 

Louisville, 147; a trade center, 165. 

MACHINERY, agricultural, 217-235. 

McCormick, Cyrus Hall, and the 
reaper, 218-220. 

McKenzie, John, 208. 

Maize, Indian myth of origin of, 21-24; 
origin of the name, 41. See also Corn. 

Marietta, 122. 

Maryland, active in railroad building, 
190, 192. 

Meat-packing industry in Chicago, 
208-210. 

Mexico, corn in, 275. 

Michigan, 117. 

Migration, and its efifect on the Eastern 
States, 129; westward, 123-128. 

Millet flour, 33. 

Minnesota, 178, 199. 

Mississippi River, 137; and its tribu- 
taries, 160-163; controlled by 
Spanish, 119; effect of canal-building 
on trade of the, 175-176; trans- 
portation on the, 145. 

Mississippi Valley, 159-160, 163-166; 
affected by invention of steamboat, 
157; "the body of the nation," 159. 

Missouri, no, 125. 

Missouri River, steamboats on the, 164. 

Mondamin and Hiawatha, 21-24. 

Moore, Jerry, 259. 

Morrill, Senator Justin, 242. 

Moses and the health laws, 31. 

Muskingum River, 122, 171. 

Mythical stories of food-giving plants, 
16-25. 

NATIONAL CORN CLUB, 264. 
Navigation of streams, question as to 
control of, 156. 



The Index 



307 



Nebraska, 109, 199. 

New England states opposed measures 
designed for the upbuilding of the 
West, 130. 

New Orleans, 121, 167. 

Nile River, 17-19. 

Northwest, The, 108-110, 123; Cin- 
cinnati, capital of, 122; forming, 115- 
116; government of, 116-117. 

OATS, 33. 

Ogden, William B., 219. 

Ohio, 109, 117, 125, 147-148; active 
for better means of communication 
between East and West, 149. 

Ohio Canal, 171-172. 

Ohio Company, 122. 

Ohio River, 125, 137; floating stores 
on the, 146-147; steamboats on the, 
155; transportation on the, 145. 

Ohio Valley, French and English in the, 
95-98. 

Oils made from corn, 292. 

Oklahoma Territory, 200. 

"Old Ironsides," 191. 

Omaha, 210. 

Ordinance of 1787, 116. 

Osiris, Isis and, 17-19- 

PACK HORSES, 138-139. 

Packing houses, product of the, 

210-213. 
Peasants of Europe come to America, 

77-79- 
Peck, A. S., 226. 
Peel, Robert, 1 81-187. 
Pennsylvania establishes a rail-and- 

water route, 189-190. 
Pennsylvania trail, 117. 
Peterson, J. C, 225. 
Philadelphia, a ca,ttle market, 143; 

constructs turnpikes between East 

and West, 145; establishes trade 

with West, 138. 
Philippine Islands, com in the, 273. 
Piedmont country depended on corn, 

85-86. 
Pittsburgh, 117, 124; center of trade, 

146; wagon route between Phila- 
delphia and, 145. 
Plagues, 44. 
Plato's story of man's superiority over 

the lower animals, 5-7. 
Platte River, steamboats on the, 164. 
Plow, development of the, 228-230; 

of the early settler in the United 

States, 132-133. 
Plowing in Palestine, 15. 
Plymouth, colony at, 66-67. 
Polenta, 271, 298. 
Political difficulties of the early 

United States, 150-152; of the 

thirteen states, 11 3- 115. 
Political persecution in Europe, 79-80. 
*'Poor laws" of England, 76. 
Pop corn, 276. 



Population, and its movement west- 
ward, 1820 to 1850, 177; center of, 
1790-1910, 200; in the new Western 
States, 1790-1820, 130-131; in the 
corn country, 199, 202; movement of , 
238-239. 

Pork, supplied by the Western States, 
179-180. 

Pork-packing business moved from 
Cincinnati to Chicago, 194. 

Potatoes a new food of the early 
explorers in America, 55. 

Potomac River Trail, 117. 

Prairie lands, last of the, 236-237. 

Price, Sir Thomas, 247. 

Prometheus, story of, 5-7. 

Proserpine, 19-21. 

Putnam, General Rufus, 116, 122. 

QUAKERS move into the Northwest, 
129. 

RAILROAD, development of the, 183- 
196; an agent of prosperity to the 
Northwest, 203-205; effect of the, 
194-196; enters Chicago, 207; first, 
184; reaches the corn country, 192. 

Reaper, Cyrus Hall McCormick and 
the, 218-219; effect of the, 219-220; 
and threshing machine combined, 
220-221. 

Religious and political persecution in 
Europe, 79-80. 

Renick, George, 143. 

Rice, 33. 

River valleys, of the New World, 56; 
wars of the world for control of, 
37-39. 

Roads, between East and West con- 
structed by Philadelphia, 145; Con- 
gress builds first public, 148; early 
military, 136-137; Indian trails used 
as first, 92, 136. 

"Rocket," the, 187-188. 

Roman myth of food-giving plants, 
19-21. 

Roosevelt, Nicholas J., 155. 

Roumania, leading corn country in 
Europe, 273. 

Russia, corn in, 273, 275. 

Rye bread, ZZ- 

SAGO bread, 34. 

St. Clair, General, 117. 

St. Louis, 164, 210. 

Salt, tariff on, 180. 

Scioto River, 171. 

Scioto Valley, 143. 

Seed corn, proper selection of, 279- 

283. 
"Seneca Chief," the, 169, 170. 
Servants, peasants of Europe in order 

to reach America bind themselves 

as, 77-79, 87. 
Shippensburg, 138, 139. 
Shockers, corn, 227-228. 



3o8 



The Index 



Slavery in America, beginning of, 88. 

Smith, John, and the Indians, 65-71. 

Smith, W. H., 259. 

Soil, primitive methods of tilling the, 
132-134; variety of corn improved 
by good, 283-288. 

South, boys' corn clubs in the, 259-265; 
farmers' cooperative demonstration 
work in the, 256-258, 265-267. 

South America, corn in, 246-248, 274. 

South Carolina, active in railroad 
building, 190. 

Soya bread, 33. 

Spain, corn in, 271. 

Spanish explorers in America, 58, 60. 

Squanto teaches colonists how to plant 
corn, 67. 

States' Rights, 113-115. 

Steamboat, a force at work for internal 
improvements, 157-159; competition 
between railroad and, 204; ^ early 
transportation by, 164-166; inven- 
tion of the, 152-155. 

Steamboat companies, rival, 156-157. 

Stephenson, George, 185-188. 

Stephenson, Robert, 185. 

Stock country of America, 239. 

Stock yards of Chicago, 208. 

Stores, floating, 145-147. 

"Stover," 222. 

TAPIOCA flour, 34. 

Tenant farmers of England, 75-76. 

Tennessee, 112, 123. 

Teosinte, 277. 

Terrell, Texas, 256. 

"The Best Friend," second American- 
built locomotive, 191. 

"The Western Stock Journal and 
Farm," 255. 

Threshing machine, 220-221; and 
reaper combined, 220-221. 

"Tom Thumb," first American-built 
locomotive, 190. 

Trading. See Commerce. 

Trails, early Indian, 94-95- 

Transylvania, 10 1. 

Tupper, Benjamin, 122. 

Turkey, corn in, 273. 



Turnpikes, national, 147-148. See also 
Roads. 

VANDERBILT, CORNELIUS, and the 

steamboat business, 157. 
Vegetables, used as medicinal plants by 

ancients, 24-25. 
Vegetarian Club of France, 296. 
Venice, a trading center, 40. 
Vincennes, 107. 

WATERWAYS, inland, 158-159. 

Watt, James, 154. 

Weevil, protection of corn against, 281. 

Welland Canal, 174. 

Wellington, Duke of, 187. 

West, The, cattle trade between the 
East and, 143; center of world's 
food supply, 214-226; dependent 
upon the South, 167-168; difficulties 
in settling, 119; early commerce 
between states of the East and states 
of, 1^36-139; effect of canal-building 
on, 172-174; effect of lack of easy 
communication with outside world 
on, 136, 140-142; first great national 
road between East and, 148; grain of 
the, 178-182; the granary of the 
world, 196, 217-235; movement to, 
198-200; railroad joins East_ to, 
190-194; steamboat traffic joins 
southern and eastern section of 
country to, 163-166. 

Western territory, states dispute over, 
113-115. 

West Indies, com in, 275. 

Westward migration, 123-128. 
^ Wheat, an undependable crop, 217; on 
the eastern seaboard, 215. 

Wheat bread, 33. 

Wheeling, first great national road 
completed to, 148. 

Whiskey, corn used to mak**, 86. 

Wilderness Road, loi, 117, 123. 

"Wild Onion Place," 205. 

Wilson, James, 255, 256, 265. 

Wisconsin, 117. 

Wood, Jethro, 229. 

"YORK," 191. 



